Energy sinks for lee waves in the northern South China Sea
Recent observations report a discrepancy between observed energy dissipation rates and lee wave pressure flux predicted by linear theory in the Southern Ocean, raising the possibility that wave energy re-absorption by mean flows may be an important route to wave energy sink. Here we investigate the...
| Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/90477/ https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/90477/1/Yang_et_al_AAM_JGR_O.pdf https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JC019060 |
| Summary: | Recent observations report a discrepancy between observed energy dissipation rates and lee wave pressure flux predicted by linear theory in the Southern Ocean, raising the possibility that wave energy re-absorption by mean flows may be an important route to wave energy sink. Here we investigate the sink of lee waves in the northern South China Sea in a high-resolution nested model initialized with a synthetically-generated rough topography. Our results indicate that wave dissipation is the dominant sink of lee wave energy, with wave energy re-absorption being of secondary importance. The dominant direction of energy transfer is from mean flows to lee waves through vertical shear and horizontal strain of mean flows. A series of idealized experiments suggest that the weak wave energy re-absorption in the northern South China Sea is primarily due to the large Froude number there. |
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