Oceanic internal solitary wave interactions via the KP equation in a three-layer fluid with shear flow

The various patterns of internal solitary wave interactions are complex phenomena in the ocean, susceptible to the influence of shear flow and density distributions. Satellite imagery serves as an effective tool for investigating these interactions, but usually does not provide information on the structure of internal waves and their associated dynamics. Considering a three-layer configuration that approximates ocean stratification, we analytically investigate two-dimensional internal solitary waves (ISW) in a three-layer fluid with shear flow and continuous density distribution by establishing a (2+1)-dimensional Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) model with depth-dependent coefficients. Firstly, the KP equation is derived from the basic governing equations which include mass and momentum conservations, along with free surface boundary conditions. The coefficients of the KP equation are determined by the vertical distribution of fluid density, shear flow, and layer depth. Secondly, it is found that the interactions of ISW can be carefully classified into five types: ordinary interactions including O-type, asymmetric interactions including P-type, TP-type and TO-type, and Miles resonance. The genuine existence of these interaction types is observed from satellite images in the Andaman Sea, the Malacca Strait, and the coast of Washington state. Finally, the "convex" and "concave" internal solitary interactions are discovered in the three-layer fluid, which together constitute the fluctuating forms of oceanic ISW. It is revealed that shear flow is the primary factor to determine whether these types of interactions are "convex" or "concave." Besides, a detailed analysis is conducted to show how the ratio of densities influences the properties of these interactions, such as amplitude, angle, and wave width.