Fate of Internal Waves on a Shallow Shelf
Name
JGR Oceans - 2020 - Davis - Fate of Internal Waves on a Shallow Shelf.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
10.75 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b34f3bd9afc3641ab3ceaa3ffce72117
Author(s)
Davis, Kristen A
Arthur, Robert S
Reid, Emma C
Rogers, Justin S
Fringer, Oliver B
DeCarlo, Thomas M
Cohen, Anne L
Date Issued
April 21, 2020
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Citation
Davis, K. A., Arthur, R. S., Reid, E. C., Rogers, J. S., Fringer, O. B., DeCarlo, T. M., & Cohen, A. L. (2020). Fate of internal waves on a shallow shelf. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 125, e2019JC015377.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Internal waves strongly influence the physical and chemical environment of coastal ecosystems worldwide. We report novel observations from a distributed temperature sensing (DTS) system that tracked the transformation of internal waves from the shelf break to the surf zone over a narrow shelf slope region in the South China Sea. The spatially continuous view of temperature fields provides a perspective of physical processes commonly available only in laboratory settings or numerical models, including internal wave reflection off a natural slope, shoreward transport of dense fluid within trapped cores, and observations of internal rundown (near‐bed, offshore‐directed jets of water preceding a breaking internal wave). Analysis shows that the fate of internal waves on this shelf—whether transmitted into shallow waters or reflected back offshore—is mediated by local water column density structure and background currents set by the previous shoaling internal waves, highlighting the importance of wave‐wave interactions in nearshore internal wave dynamics.
MIT Department
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jc015377
