Interactive comment on “Limiting amplitudes of fully nonlinear interfacial tides and solitons” by Borja Aguiar-González and Theo Gerkema

This paper discusses the derivation and then numerical solutions of a fully-nonlinear, weakly-dispersive model for internal tides and solitary-like waves in two-layer stratifications. The model is an extension of the Miyata-Choi-Camassa theory to include rotation and variable topography. While the effects of rotation have previously been studied, the inclusion of variable topography, and forcing of the internal tide by moving topography is new. The authors find that increasing forcing (measured by the maximum speed of the oscillating topography) leads to a maximum amplitude of the radiated internal tide and that further increasing the forcing results in a reduction in radiated amplitude. This is interesting and counter-intuitive result is attributed to the generation of higher harmonics with increasing forcing. Overall the paper contains useful (e.g. the derivation of the model) and interesting results and will be of some interest to the community. However, there are issues with work as presented that need to be addressed. These