Generation of secondary internal waves by the interaction of internal solitary waves with an underwater bank

The generation of an internal wave packet by the interaction of a large-amplitude internal solitary wave with an underwater bank is studied by using a numerical model and a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image acquired by the European Remote Sensing satellite ERS-2 over the Andaman Sea. It is shown that, if the internal solitary wave has a sufficiently large amplitude, overturning and wave breaking occurs which gives rise to the generation of a secondary internal wave packet. The results obtained from the model calculations are supported by the ERS-2 SAR observations.