Purpose. The work is purposed at studying the characteristics of shear flows induced by internal waves on the northeastern shelf of Sakhalin Island based on the results of numerical modeling of the transformation of barotropic tide along the selected two-dimensional (vertical plane) sections.

Methods and Results. The data from the WOA18 climate atlas with the 0.25° resolution for a summer season, and the bathymetry from GEBCO_2014 with the 1 min resolution are used to initiate a numerical model of the hydrodynamics of inviscid incompressible stratified fluid in the Boussinesq approximation. A tidal forcing from TOPEX/Poseidon Global Tidal Model (TPXO8) model which is based on satellite altimetry data is preset at the deep-sea boundary. For the near-bottom and near-surface velocities (at the fixed depths: 15 m above the bottom and 15 m below the surface), the diagrams of exceedance probability levels are constructed both allowing for the direction (sign) and according to the absolute value. Then the velocities at a probability level 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15 are identified, and conversely, the probability with which the velocity 0.25 or 0.3 m/s would be exceeded is determined. The maps are constructed based on the obtained values.

Conclusions. It is shown that the studied shear flows are nonlinear and characterized by significant asymmetry in distribution both in direction (from coast/to coast) and over depth (in the near-bottom and near-surface layers). In the areas where the sea depth is 700–800 m, there is a clearly defined zone where the absolute values of near-surface velocities are several times higher than those of the near-bottom ones. The main zones including the local maxima of velocity field are located in the north – from Cape Elizabeth to Piltun Bay, with one more from Cape Bellingshausen to Cape Terpeniya.