Frequency Shift of Near-Inertial Waves in the South China Sea

Despite sufficient wind forcing, internal waves in the South China Sea do not exhibit the strong near-inertial wave (NIW) peak that is typical in most of the world oceans. Using data from 10 contemporaneous moorings deployed in summer 2011, we show that strong isopycnal vertical tidal displacements transfer most of the near-inertial (NI) kinetic energy (KE) to frequencies higher than the inertial frequency in an Eulerian reference frame. Transforming to an isopycnal-following reference frame increases the KE at NI frequencies, suggesting the presence of NIWs. However, the projection onto a semi-Lagrangian coordinate system still underestimates the expected NI peak. To fully resolve NIWs requires the use of time-dependent vertical wavenumber–frequency spectra because the intrinsic frequency of the NIWs varies substantially, owing to Doppler shifting by lateral mesoscale flows. Here, we show NIW intrinsic frequency variations of ±0.2 cpd within few days, of similar magnitude as the observed variations of relative vorticity associated with the meandering Kuroshio.