Abstract
Abstract. The generation of huge amplitude internal waves by the barotropic tide in the Barents Sea at high latitudes is examined using the numerical model of the Euler 2-D equations for incompressible stratified fluid. The area considered is located between the Spitsbergen (Svalbard) Island and the Franz-Victoria Trough with a cross-section of 350 km length. There are two underwater hills about 100–150 m high on the background depth of about 300 m. It is shown that intensive nonlinear internal waves with amplitudes up to 50 m and lengths of about 6–12 km are generated in this zone. The total height of such waves is huge and they must be considered as a significant factor of the environment in this basin.
Highlights
Internal waves in the shelf zones are generated mainly by tidal forcing
Intensive internal waves generated over the shelf edge and continental slope are an important source of strong currents, vertical mixing (Babu and Rao, 2010), bottom erosion (Bogucki and Redekopp, 1999)
They strongly impact on acoustic fields and significantly reduce the distance of acoustic pulse propagation (Apel et al, 2007; Warn-Varnas et al, 2009; Sridevi et al, 2010), and may be dangerous for underwater vehicles and underwater parts of oil platforms and pipelines
Summary
The modeling of tidal internal waves on various shelves of the World oceans is carried out using numerical models of different levels (see, for example, Helfrich and Melville, 2006; Vlasenko et al, 2005; Holloway et al, 1999; WarnVarnas et al, 2005, 2010). When the measuring instruments drifted from the slopes of the trough to a distance of 20–40 km toward flat bottom regions, the amplitude of these waves significantly decreased Under certain stipulations, these semidiurnal waves were classified as internal tides.”. The possibility of the generation of internal tidal waves by topography above the critical latitude was shown by Naka-2 mura et al (2000), with drostatic model. 4 the results of the numerical modeling amplitude internal waves observed over the critical latitude 11 are presented. The time step is tied to the Courant-Levi condition and varies from 2 s to 5 s
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
