Remote sensing survey and research on internal solitary waves in the South China Sea-Western Pacific-East Indian Ocean (SCS-WPAC-EIND)

Internal solitary waves (ISWs) are common mesoscale dynamic processes in the ocean that are spread throughout the world’s oceans. The South China Sea (SCS), Western Pacific (WPAC) and Indian Ocean (EIND) (SCS-WPAC-EIND) are areas where ISWs frequently occur. In particular, in the northern part of the South China Sea, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, Andaman Sea, Lombok Strait and northeastern part of Taiwan Island, ISWs exist almost year-round. Remote sensing is an important technique to carry out investigations and research on ISWs on a large scale. In particular, optical sensors represented by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) can observe ISWs for a long time and on a large scale, while SAR sensors such as Sentinel-1 A/B can compensate for the deficiencies in optical sensors and comprehensively observe ISWs. Based on many years of remote sensing surveys of ISWs, this paper uses MODIS and Sentinel-1 satellite remote sensing images of more than 70 000 scenes from 2010 to 2020 to carry out survey studies of ISWs in the SCS-WPAC-EIND. The survey systematically gives the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of ISWs in the SCS-WPAC-EIND and focuses on the analysis of the ISW characteristics in main areas in the SCS-WPAC-EIND, thereby providing basic data for further research on ISWs.