Seismic images of ocean meso-scale eddies and internal waves
海洋中尺度涡与内波的地震图像

Marine reflection seismics is usually used for imaging the seafloor geological structure and exploring hydrocarbon and gas hydrate resources. Recent researches have shown that multichannel seismic reflection method can also image the thermohaline fine structure in the water column. Meso-scale eddies and internal waves are important phenomena. Because conventional physical oceanographic measurements are carried out at discrete sites separated several kilometers with low lateral resolution, their lateral distribution is poorly known. This paper provides new evidence of clear seismic images of the meso-scale eddy in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and internal waves in the northeastern South China Sea. Compared with the traditional physical oceanographic methods, reflection seismology has several advantages, such as high lateral resolution and the ability of imaging a large ocean profile in short time. The change of reflection feature due to the meso-scale eddies and internal waves can be clearly imaged, which helps for better understanding of energy transfer among different scale process in the ocean.