Weak and Strong Interactions between Internal Solitary Waves

The interaction of weakly nonlinear long internal gravity waves is studied. Weak interactions occur when the wave phase speeds are unequal; this case includes that of a head‐on collision. It is shown that each wave satisfies a Korteweg‐de Vries equation, and the main effect of the interaction is described by a phase shift. Strong interactions occur when the wave phase speeds are nearly equal although the waves belong to different modes. This case is described by a pair of coupled Korteweg‐de Vries equations, for which some preliminary numerical results are presented.