Internal waves across the Pacific

Details Internal waves across the Pacific Internal waves across the Pacific

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007georl..3424601a&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 34, Issue 24, CiteID L24601

Other

19

Oceanography: Physical: Internal And Inertial Waves, Oceanography: Physical: Surface Waves And Tides (1222), Oceanography: Physical: Turbulence, Diffusion, And Mixing Processes (4490)

Scientific paper

The long-range propagation of the semidiurnal internal tide northward from the Hawaiian ridge and its susceptibility to parametric subharmonic instability (PSI) at the ``critical latitude,'' λ c = 28.8°N, were examined in spring 2006 with intensive shipboard and moored observations spanning 25-37°N along a tidal beam. Velocity and shear at λ c were dominated by intense vertically-standing, inertially-rotating bands of several hundred meters vertical wavelength. These occurred in bursts following spring tide, contrasting sharply with the downward-propagating, wind-generated features seen at other latitudes. These marginally-stable layers (which have inverse 16-meter Richardson number Ri 16 -1 = 0.7) are interpreted as the inertial waves resulting from PSI of the internal tide. Elevated near-inertial energy and parameterized diapycnal diffusivity, and reduced asymmetry in upgoing/downgoing energy, were also observed at and equatorward of λ c . Yet, simultaneous moored measurements of semidiurnal energy flux and 1-km-deep velocity sections measured from the ship indicate that the internal tide propagates at least to 37°N, with no detectable energy loss or phase discontinuity at λ c . Our observations indicate that PSI occurs in the ocean with sufficient intensity to substantially alter the inertial shear field at and equatorward of λ c , but that it does not appreciably disrupt the propagation of the tide at our location.

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