The Internal Tide Of The Tasman Sea

Harper L Simmons, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States, Dmitry Brazhnikov, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Anchorage, AK, United States, Sam Kelly, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN, United States, Jody M Klymak, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada and Amy Frances Waterhouse, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
Abstract:
The Tasman Sea internal tides feature a relatively narrow beam of low mode energy flux that has been observed to cross the basin from the Macquarie Ridge and impinge upon the continental slope of Tasmania. A series of regional hindcast simulations of the tides and general circulation reveal that the beam is formed when semidiurnal barotropic tidal current ellipses cross submarine features South of New Zealand. The beam generation sites are along the Macquarie Ridge, which extends Southeast from New Zealand, and the shelf break on the Western edge of the Campbell plateau. The simulated basin scale barotropic and low mode baroclinic tides are described, with attention to the generation, propagation, reflection and scattering of the beam. Interannual variability in the circulation and stratification is described, along with changes of the surface tides, the baroclinic generation and the beam. Comparisons are made to in-situ measurements collected during the TTIDE/TBEAM/TSHELF experiments as well as to historical glider measurements and altimetric inferences of surface and baroclinic tides.
Back to: The Ocean's Energy Cascade: Measuring and Modeling of Instabilities, Internal Waves, and Turbulence at the Submesoscale and Smaller VI Posters