Partitioning of energy, vorticity, and strain in upper-ocean internal waves

1981 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Michael Milder
Keyword(s):  
Internal Waves ◽  
Upper Ocean

scholarly journals Spatially Broad Observations of Internal Waves in the Upper Ocean at the Hawaiian Ridge

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1085-1103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Martin ◽  
Daniel L. Rudnick ◽  
Robert Pinkel
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Model ◽  
Energy Density ◽  
Potential Energy ◽  
Internal Waves ◽  
Upper Ocean ◽  
Mean Square ◽  
The South ◽  
South Side ◽  
Topographic Slope ◽  
Hawaiian Ridge

Abstract The density and current structure at the Hawaiian Ridge was observed using SeaSoar and Doppler sonar during a survey extending from Oahu to Brooks Banks. Across- and along-ridge changes in internal wave statistics in the upper ocean within 200 km of the ridge are investigated. Internal waves with trough-to-crest amplitude as large as 60 m and horizontal wavelength of about 50 km are observed repeatedly in across-ridge sections of potential density. Within 150 km of the ridge, kinetic and potential energy density exceed open-ocean values with maxima about 10 times Garrett–Munk levels. In the Kauai Channel (KC), the kinetic energy density is largest along an M2 internal tide ray. The ray originates at the northern edge of the ridge peak at a large across-ridge change in topographic slope and terminates at the ocean surface about 30–40 km south of the ridge peak. Kinetic and potential energy density are larger on the south side of the ridge at KC, the side with larger topographic slope. Energy density is also larger on the south side of the ridge at KC in numerical model results and on the side of steeper topographic slope in analytical model results. Along the ridge, the largest observed values of mean-square shear and mean-square slope of isopycnal depth are collocated with the largest energy density in numerical model results. Mean-square shear and mean-square slope increase with decreasing bottom depth and with increasing M2 barotropic tidal forcing.

Internal waves in JASIN

1983 ◽  
Vol 308 (1503) ◽  
pp. 389-405 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Internal Waves ◽  
Internal Tide ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Upper Ocean ◽  
Velocity Measurements ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
Topographic Features ◽  
Rockall Trough ◽  
Moored Current Meters ◽  
The Continuum

The internal wavefield during the Joint Air—Sea Interaction (JASIN) experiment was monitored by moored current meters and moored and towed thermistor chains. The observations were concentrated in the upper ocean near the centre of Rockall Trough, but velocity measurements were also made near topographic features and throughout the water column. Observed spectra are compared with results from the deep ocean, as represented by the Garrett-Munk (GM) model of the spectral continuum, and are generally found to have spectral levels equal to or greater than the GM spectrum. The greatest deviation from the GM spectrum occurs at high frequencies and wavenumbers where the observed spectra often exhibit a spectral shoulder and high vertical coherence. These features, also found in other upper-ocean spectra, are explained by a model composed of three vertically standing modes. The spatial variation of internal wave variance is related to topography: variance is highest near rough topography. The ratio of variance in the semidiurnal tidal band to variance in a band in the continuum is approximately constant. The possibility of a dynamical link between the two frequency bands requires further investigation. The semidiurnal internal tide varies temporally and spatially. Rockall Bank is identified as the source of an energetic beam of tidal oscillations during a one-week period.

scholarly journals Multimodal Internal Waves Generated over a Subcritical Ridge: Impact of the Upper-Ocean Stratification

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 904-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jieshuo Xie ◽  
Jiayi Pan ◽  
David A. Jay
Keyword(s):  
Internal Waves ◽  
Phase Speed ◽  
Upper Ocean ◽  
Strong Mixing ◽  
Energy Partition ◽  
Higher Modes ◽  
Ocean Stratification ◽  
Nonhydrostatic Model ◽  
Mode 2 ◽  
Stratified Ocean

AbstractInteraction of barotropic tides with subsurface topography is vital to ocean mixing. Yet the behavior of large-amplitude, nonlinear, internal solitary waves (ISWs) that can cause strong mixing remains poorly understood, especially that of higher-mode and multimodal internal waves. Therefore, a 2.5-dimensional, nonhydrostatic model with adjustable vertical resolution was developed to investigate effects of upper-ocean stratification on tidally induced multimodal internal waves and to show how they are generated by the subcritical ridge where only upward-propagating internal wave beams (IWBs) are present. The effects of the stratification on properties and characteristics of the excited IWBs and on the energy partition of the radiated mode-1 and mode-2 internal waves were investigated based on the model results. Higher modes of internal waves can also be effectively generated in the IWBs by the subcritical topography, and the contribution to IWBs from higher modes increases with the upper-ocean stratification. Mode-2 ISWs can be excited from the IWBs if both the tidal Froude number and the contribution to IWBs from mode-2 waves are sufficiently high (U0 is the tidal current speed, and c2 is the phase speed of mode-2 waves). In a moderately stratified upper ocean, both mode-1 and mode-2 ISWs can be produced, but for weak (strong) stratification, only mode-1 (mode-2) ISWs are generated. Further, it is found that the distance between two successive mode-1 or mode-2 ISW trains increases linearly with the upper-ocean stratification. The ratio of the kinetic energy to the available potential energy for the mode-2 ISWs increases with the upper-ocean stratification in a strongly stratified ocean.

Internal Waves in the Upper Ocean

1981 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1234-1247 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. W. Roth ◽  
M. G. Briscoe ◽  
C. H. McComas
Keyword(s):  
Internal Waves ◽  
Upper Ocean
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