Internal solitary waves (ISW) have been detected on the interface of a stratified water column in the ocean. It is believed that ISW could affect oil drilling operations, nutrient pumping, and acoustic signal obstruction. In the ocean, the thickness of a pycnocline is finite which differs with the theoretical assumption as being a thin layer. This thesis reports the effect of an ISW propagation in various pycnocline thicknesses. Laboratory experiments were conducted in an internal wave flume (0.5¡Ñ0.7¡Ñ12m) at the National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. ISW in depression or elevation type were generaled using a stratified two-layer fresh/brine water system with a total depth of 50 cm in the flume. Upon creating an ISW propagating on a flat bed or over a triangular obstacle later, several physical parameters of the ISW (i.e. wave amplitude, phase speed, characteristic wave length, and wave energy) were measured or calculated for different thicknesses of the pycnocline. The major controlling factors in the experiments included the depth ratio of the upper to lower layer H1/H2, interface displacement £b0 between the wave generating chamber and the main flume, and the thickness of the pycnocline. The thickness of the pycnocline was estimated from the result of density profile in the vertical direction in the flume, experiments under the same H1/H2 and £b was terminated when the pycnocline thickness became large enough. As the thickness of the pycnoline increased, the values of all the physical parameters (including wave amplitude, phase speed, and wave energy) under consideration decreased. Their reduction rates were more significant in the case of small interface displacement (£b0=10cm) than that with large £b0=15cm. On the other hand, the changes in the physical variables associated with a depression ISW were more significant than those in an elevation ISW.

Les gyres subtropicaux sont au coeur des changements observés au cours des dernières décennies. On y observe entre la surface et la pycnocline permanente une augmentation du contenu thermique de l’océan. La pycnocline permanente délimite un important réservoir de chaleur et joue un rôle majeur en empêchant la chaleur accumulée en surface d’atteindre les profondeurs de l’océan. La pycnocline permanente est donc d’un intérêt important dans un contexte de changement climatique. Pour la première fois et grâce au réseau de données Argo, nous avons été capables de déterminer les propriétés de la pycnocline permanente. L’objectif de cette thèse est de déterminer la structure de la pycnocline permanente et d’étudier sa variabilité au cours des dernières décennies. Une méthode de détermination objective de la pycnocline permanente a été développée. Cette méthode a d’abord été appliquée à l’océan Atlantique nord avec les données Argo puis à l’océan global. Une structure complexe de la pycnocline permanente a été mise en évidence avec de fortes différences d’un gyre à l’autre. La pycnocline permanente est la plus profonde et la plus épaisse dans le gyre subtropical nord Atlantique. Cela explique que le gyre subtropical nord Atlantique soit le plus grand réservoir de chaleur au monde. Ensuite, les relations entre la variabilité du contenu de chaleur et les propriétés de la pycnocline permanente ont été étudiées en s’appuyant sur des réanalyses océaniques. Au cours des dernières décennies, un réchauffement important de l’océan a été observé et particulièrement dans l’océan Atlantique nord. Ce réchauffement est principalement dominé par un approfondissement des isopycnes. Les déplacements verticaux des isopycnes induisent des changements dans la stratification et affectent les propriétés de la pycnocline permanente (profondeur et densité potentielle). / Subtropical gyres are central to the observed climate changes throughout the last decades. It is observed between the surface and the permanent pycnocline an intense increase in the ocean heat content. The permanent pycnocline delineates thus an important heat reservoir. The permanent pycnocline has a major role in preventing heat to reach the deep ocean and it thus of a relative importance in the context of climate change. For the first time and thanks to the development of the Argo array, we have been able to characterize the observed structure of the permanent pycnocline. The objective of this PhD thesis is to investigate the structure of the permanent pycnocline and its variability over the last decades. We developed an objective method to characterize the properties of the permanent pycnocline. This method has been first applied to the North Atlantic Ocean with Argo data and then to the global ocean. A complex structure of the permanent pycnocline emerges with strong differences from one gyre to another. The permanent pycnocline is found to be the deepest and the thickest in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. It implies that the North Atlantic subtropical gyre is the largest heat reservoir on Earth. Then, ocean reanalyses have been used to investigate the changes in the permanent pycnocline properties in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Over the last decades, there is a strong warming of the upper ocean, especially in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. The warming in the ocean is dominated by the heaving of isopycnal surfaces. This heaving strongly affects the depths of isopycnals and the stratification. This in turn affects the properties of the permanent pycnocline, especially its depth and potential density.