Large amplitude internal waves in the coastal ocean (Preface)
2011
Grimshaw, Roger H. J. | Helfrich, Karl R. | Scotti, Alberto
© The Author(s), 2011. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics 18 (2011): 653-655, doi:10.5194/npg-18-653-2011.
Show more [+] Less [-]The flow in the coastal ocean, and especially on thecontinental shelf and slope is often characterized by thepresence of very large-amplitude internal waves. Theseare waves which occur in the interior of the ocean, andpropagate horizontally with a concentration of their energyaround the oceanic pcynocline. They are usually generatedby the interaction of the barotropic tide with the shelfbreak, topographic sill or with other prominent bottomfeatures. This leads to the formation of an internaltide, which then deforms and evolves into a train ofvery large-amplitude internal waves, with associated largepycnocline displacements and strong currents. They arehighly significant for sediment transport and for the biologyon the continental shelf, their associated currents causestrong forces on marine platforms and submersibles, theassociated strong distortion of the density field has a severeimpact on acoustic signaling and their capacity to breakand form microstructure has major consequences for theunderstanding of interior ocean mixing.
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