Dynamics of the North Sea pole tide reconsidered

• Published in: Geophysical Journal International
• Main Author: Wunsch, Carl
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1986
• Subjects: Articles; Arctic; Chandler
• Online Access: http://gji.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/87/3/869; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1986.tb01974.x

The anomalous tide in the North Sea, driven by the Chandler wobble, is here re-examined. A previously published solution in which these ‘pole tide’ observations were explained as a forced co-oscillation from the deep water tide is shown to be untenable, because it is very unlikely that the deep ocean tide is anything but equilibrium. Using the same physics as in the previous solution (viscous, linear, quasi-geostrophic dynamics), it is now suggested that the only plausible explanation is that there is a coincidental resonance between the long-wavelength branch topographic Rossby wave of the North Sea and the direct driving by the pole tide potential. This resonance is not a basin-resonance, but that of a free wave driven by a travelling forcing function. Simplified models reproduce the observations in qualitative fashion. If this explanation is the correct one, then the Arctic seas north of Asia and North America appear to be likely candidates as other regions where there may be a large pole tide response and, hence, a locus of wobble dissipation. Given the difficulties of observation, the long times required, and the general instability of the dissipation calculation with the simplified analytical model, probably a numerical model will be required for further progress.