Observations of the semidiurnal internal tide in the western North Atlantic Ocean
Extensive moored measurements of temperature and horizontal current fluctuations in a Mid-Ocean Dynamics Experiment in the deep western North Atlantic near 28°N, 70°W are analysed for semidiurnal tides. The M 2 principal lunar tide is dominant, and about 50% of the main thermocline temperature varia...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
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Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
1977
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1977.0108 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.1977.0108 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsta.1977.0108 2024-06-02T08:11:16+00:00 Observations of the semidiurnal internal tide in the western North Atlantic Ocean 1977 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1977.0108 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.1977.0108 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences volume 286, issue 1330, page 1-24 ISSN 0080-4614 2054-0272 journal-article 1977 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1977.0108 2024-05-07T14:16:02Z Extensive moored measurements of temperature and horizontal current fluctuations in a Mid-Ocean Dynamics Experiment in the deep western North Atlantic near 28°N, 70°W are analysed for semidiurnal tides. The M 2 principal lunar tide is dominant, and about 50% of the main thermocline temperature variance in the M 2 band is coherent with the astronomical forcing and so of a deterministic rather than random nature. The first baroclinic mode is dominant in the internal tide, and propagates to the southeast through the experimental area. The M 2 first mode internal tide has an energy density of 0.9 x 10 2 J/m 2 , about 20% as great as the barotropic tide energy density, and the horizontal currents in the barotropic and baroclinic tides are comparable with a characteristic deep amplitude of 1 cm/s. It is proposed that the Blake Escarpment 700 km to the west is a major generation area for the internal tide, and simple theoretical arguments suggest that the Escarpment is especially effective in generating low mode internal waves. Neighbouring tidal bands are much more dominated by randomly phased internal waves, but the S 2 principal solar band shows evidence for a weak deterministic internal tide. Mooring motion adds incoherent noise to the tidal period temperature fluctuations. Barotropic currents for the major M 2 , S 2 and N 2 semidiurnal constituents are derived from the current measurements, although internal wave noise levels are high. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic The Royal Society Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences 286 1330 1 24 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Extensive moored measurements of temperature and horizontal current fluctuations in a Mid-Ocean Dynamics Experiment in the deep western North Atlantic near 28°N, 70°W are analysed for semidiurnal tides. The M 2 principal lunar tide is dominant, and about 50% of the main thermocline temperature variance in the M 2 band is coherent with the astronomical forcing and so of a deterministic rather than random nature. The first baroclinic mode is dominant in the internal tide, and propagates to the southeast through the experimental area. The M 2 first mode internal tide has an energy density of 0.9 x 10 2 J/m 2 , about 20% as great as the barotropic tide energy density, and the horizontal currents in the barotropic and baroclinic tides are comparable with a characteristic deep amplitude of 1 cm/s. It is proposed that the Blake Escarpment 700 km to the west is a major generation area for the internal tide, and simple theoretical arguments suggest that the Escarpment is especially effective in generating low mode internal waves. Neighbouring tidal bands are much more dominated by randomly phased internal waves, but the S 2 principal solar band shows evidence for a weak deterministic internal tide. Mooring motion adds incoherent noise to the tidal period temperature fluctuations. Barotropic currents for the major M 2 , S 2 and N 2 semidiurnal constituents are derived from the current measurements, although internal wave noise levels are high. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Observations of the semidiurnal internal tide in the western North Atlantic Ocean |
spellingShingle |
Observations of the semidiurnal internal tide in the western North Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
Observations of the semidiurnal internal tide in the western North Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
Observations of the semidiurnal internal tide in the western North Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Observations of the semidiurnal internal tide in the western North Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Observations of the semidiurnal internal tide in the western North Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
observations of the semidiurnal internal tide in the western north atlantic ocean |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
1977 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1977.0108 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.1977.0108 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences volume 286, issue 1330, page 1-24 ISSN 0080-4614 2054-0272 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1977.0108 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
container_volume |
286 |
container_issue |
1330 |
container_start_page |
1 |
op_container_end_page |
24 |
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1800757341779394560 |