Tidally generated internal waves

Abstract: This thesis deals with the internal tide in the deep ocean, which is generated by the barotropic tide flowing over the bottom topography. The energy flux from the barotropic tide to the internal-wave field at the bottom is calculated using a method based on linear-wave theory and the traditional WKB approximation valid for a slowing varying vertical stratification. The global distribution of the baroclinic plus barotropic tidal velocities near the bottom is thus obtained, which is then used to analyzed the deep-sea sediment resuspension. The calculated energy flux of the internal tide is then compared with the energy dissipation rate obtained from different data sets of microstructure measurements conducted in several regions of the world ocean. A good correlation is generally found between the model estimates and observations, giving us some confidence that the theory reasonably well predict internal tide generation. It is also found that the ratio of the averaged energy dissipation rate to the averaged energy flux is very different in different regions. A direct global calculation of the energy flux is done by projecting the internal tides onto vertical eigenmodes, so that the vertical density profile and the finite ocean depth are taken into account in a fully consistent way. The results of the modal energy flux is important for understanding the pathway from generation to dissipation of the internal tides, since the low-mode internal tides are less affected by local nonlinear processes responsible for degrading their energy to small-scale mixing. The agreement between this detailed method and the WKB-based method is found to be high, while this methods provides new information on the vertical mode distribution of internal tide generation.Finally, the bottom-trapped internal tides, which are generated when the tidal frequency is smaller than the Coriolis frequency, is examined. The energy density associated with these waves is computed using linear wave theory and vertical normal-mode decomposition. An emphasis is placed on the bottom-trapped internal tides in the Arctic Ocean, as yet, there is a lack of the comprehensive understanding of the mixing processes in this basin. Through the development of new methods to estimate internal tide generation, this thesis provides a valuable information to the problem of the better understanding of tidal mixing in the deep ocean and its role on the large-scale ocean circulation, with a possible applications to the improvement of ocean general circulation model.