Parametric Subharmonic Instability of Diurnal Internal Tides in the Abyssal South China Sea

Abstract Internal waves close to the seafloor of abyssal oceans are the key energy suppliers driving near-bottom mixing and the upwelling branches of meridional overturning circulation, but their spatiotemporal variability and intrinsic mechanisms remain largely unclear. In this study, measurements from 10 long-term moorings were used to investigate the internal wave activities in the abyssal South China Sea, which is an important upwelling zone. Strong near-inertial internal waves (NIWs) with current velocity pulses exceeding 5 cm s−1 were observed to dominate the near-bottom internal wave field at approximately 14°N. These abyssal NIWs were phase-coupled with diurnal internal tides (D1), and both displayed common seasonal variations that were larger in winter and summer, providing evidence of diurnal parametric subharmonic instability (PSI) near its critical latitudes (CLs). Emitted from the bottom, near-inertial kinetic energy rapidly decreased by one order of magnitude from depths of ~120 m to ~620 m above the bottom. Near rough topographies, the abyssal PSI was shifted poleward to approximately 14.8°N by negative relative vorticities of passing anticyclonic eddies or topographic Rossby waves. Compared with flat topography, PSI near rough topography was significantly promoted by topographic-localized strong D1 with high-mode structures, creating abyssal NIW bursts. Bottom-reaching shipboard conductivity-temperature-depth profiles revealed that the bottom mixed layers became much thicker when approaching CLs, suggesting that abyssal PSI potentially accelerates the ventilation and upwelling of bottom water. The observational results presented here illustrate notable spatiotemporal variations in abyssal NIWs regulated by PSI and call for consideration of PSI to better understand near-bottom mixing and upwelling.