## 4 Discussion  
Our analysis suggests that the vertically integrated internal tide energy flux exhibits strong seasonal variability. Three factors may influence the internal tides: bathymetry, barotropic tides, and stratification [43; 44]. Stratification is one of the most critical conditions controlling the generation of internal tides, which is usually assessed by the Brunt-Vaisala frequency \(N\), and can modulate their seasonal variability [14; 45]. Therefore, we examined the profiles of \(N^{2}\) in different seasons in the area exhibiting significant seasonal variability in energy flux. Figure 8a,b depict the summer and winter energy fluxes in the black box of Figure 7, and the corresponding domain-averaged \(N^{2}\) is shown in Figure 8c. Figure 8d-f shows the behavior of the same variables around the Carlsberg Ridge; here, outstanding seasonal variability is observed. Surprisingly, compared to the difference in energy flux, the difference between the vertical distributions of \(N^{2}\) in the two seasons is not very significant. In Figure 8f, the red shaded area is straighter than the blue one. This difference is caused by the seasonal variability of the Somalia current, which follows a northeast direction with a higher speed in summer and a southwest direction in winter [46]. In this situation, the southward internal tides generated around the Carlsberg Ridge meet the strong northward Somalia current during summer, thereby weakening the internal tides in this area. Simultaneously, the southward Somalia current strengthens the winter internal tides. The high-speed current may produce a large Doppler shift \(\omega_{0}-U_{mc}k\), where the subscript  
Figure 9: **(a,b)** Zoomed-in vertically integrated energy flux in summer and winter, respectively. The black line along the diagonal suggests the main propagation direction of internal tides. (**c,d**) display the corresponding density’s cross-sections along the diagonals in (**a,b**). The white line suggests the depth of maximum \(N^{2}\). The shaded area marks the range of the continental shelf. (**e,f**) are the standard deviation of the SSH. \(mc\) refers to the mean current [47]. When the background current and waves have opposite directions, the signals can be suppressed [12]. In addition, the strong currents can increase the mixing of the ocean, which would weaken the stratification, as well as suppressing the strength of internal tides. Doppler shifting also contributes to the generation of internal tides in the northeast Arabian Sea, where seasonal currents are present. However, according to the circulation described by [PERSON] et al. [46], the current speed in the northeast Arabian Sea is much slower than that around Abd al Kuri Island, suggesting the existence of other influential factors. We then analyzed another aspect of internal tides with respect to horizontal variations in stratification. The energy flux from the area within the white boxes in Figure 7 is plotted in Figure 9a,b. Figure 9c,d illustrates the density distribution at the cross-sections, which are indicated by the black lines in Figure 9a. This black line was plotted to show the central axis along which energy propagates throughout the year. Theoretically, the internal tides generated under strong stratification are generally amplified [48]. Stratification in summer is stronger in the source region of internal tides (as indicated by the shading in Figure 9a-d); however, in this region, the density contours are closer in summer than in winter, and we observed only a weak energy flux in Box A (Figure 9a) in the propagation direction. The weak energy flux in Box A may be attributed to the superposition of waves traveling from different directions, as reported by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [23]. Our results indicate that the northeast Arabian Sea shelf is an active generation area of internal tides. The winter energy flux in Figure 9b also supports this finding.