The ocean is full of phenomena invisible to the naked eye, yet essential to the balance of our planet. Among them, internal solitary waves propagate along the interfaces between different water layers and play a key role in ocean circulation and energy transport.
Until recently, these waves were difficult to observe despite their importance. Thanks to the SWOT satellite, they can now be studied with unprecedented precision.
The work carried out by the Climate, Environment, Couplings and Uncertainties (CECI – CNRS/IRD/CERFACS) team provides new insights. For the first time, scientists have been able to directly observe interactions between internal solitary waves and ocean eddies, revealing dynamics that were previously poorly understood.
🎥 Chloé Goret, CNRS research engineer at CECI-CERFACS, explains these findings and their significance in the CNRS Occitanie Ouest series “La Science Face Cam”:
Publication reference:
Goret, C., Koch-Larrouy, A., Kouogang, F., de Macedo, C. R., M'Hamdi, A., Magalhães, J. M., da Silva, J. C. B., Tchilibou, M., Artana, C., Dadou, I., Delepoulle, A., Barbot, S., Ballarotta, M., Carrère, L., and Costa da Silva, A.: Internal solitary waves refraction and diffraction from interaction with eddies off the Amazon Shelf from SWOT, Ocean Sci., 22, 679–698, 2026
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