The Garrett–Munk (GM) spectrum continues to be a useful description of the oceanic internal wave field. However, there are several inconsistencies and ambiguities that make it difficult to use in comparing internal wave fields at different latitudes, stratifications, and water depths. A modified spectral formulation is presented that treats three...
This article presents a semianalytic method to investigate the properties of energy transmission across bottom topography by barotropic Rossby waves. The method is first used to revisit the analytical estimates derived from wave-matching techniques and Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) approximations. The comparison between the semianalytic method and WKB indicates that the results...
A single nonlinear internal wave tracked more than 100 wavelengths across Oregon’s continental shelf over a 12-h period exhibited nearly constant wave speed, c = 0.75 m s⁻¹, and amplitude, a = 15 m. The wavelength L gradually decreased from 220 m in 170-m water depth to 60 m in...
Several acoustic Doppler current profilers and vertical strings of temperature, conductivity, and pressure sensors, deployed on and around the East Flower Garden Bank (EFGB), were used to examine surface wave effects on high-frequency flows over the bank and to quantify spatial and temporal characteristic of these high-frequency flows. The EFGB,...
The linear theory of double diffusive interleaving is extended to take account of baroclinic effects. This study goes beyond previous studies by including the possibility of modes with nonzero tilt in the alongfront direction, which allows for advection by the baroclinic frontal flow. This requires that the stability equations be...
Observations off the New Jersey coast document the shoaling of three groups of nonlinear internal waves of depression over 35 km across the shelf. Each wave group experienced changing background conditions along its shoreward transit. Despite different wave environments, a clear pattern emerges. Nearly symmetric waves propagating into shallow water...
Velocity time series are used to study cross-shelf circulation on the northern California shelf and to examine classical ideas of locally wind-forced cross-shelf circulation. A simple linear two-dimensional model of cross-shelf transport is compared to estimates of cross-shelf transport in the near surface, interior, and near bottom. In winter, when...
Pacific Water flows across the shallow Chukchi Sea before reaching the Arctic Ocean, where it is a source of heat, freshwater, nutrients, and carbon. A substantial portion of Pacific Water is routed through Barrow Canyon, located in the northeast corner of the Chukchi. Barrow Canyon is a region of complex...
Objective streamfunction and velocity potential maps of three commonly observed flow states near Point Conception, California, are derived from moored current-meter and drifter observations. The states are defined using current-meter data. Drifter data are sorted by flow state and averaged within spatial bins to resolve their spatial structures. Spatial correlations...
New empirical estimates of the long-period fortnightly (Mf) tide obtained from TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) altimeter
data confirm significant basin-scale deviations from equilibrium. Elevations in the low-latitude Pacific
have reduced amplitude and lag those in the Atlantic by 308 or more. These interbasin amplitude and phase
variations are robust features that are...