Observations of highly nonlinear internal solitons generated by near-inertial internal waves off the east coast of Korea

Solitary internal wave packets were observed in May 1999, propagating towar d the east coast of Korea with thermocline displacements up to twenty-six m eters downward from the initial depth of twenty meters. High nonlinearity o f these waves is represented by the second-order KdV model better than KdV equations. Regular occurrence of solitary internal wave packets with the pe riod of about nineteen hours suggests the generation by near-inertial inter nal waves, which has not been reported in the literature yet.