Infragravity waves in the deep ocean

Abstract

Energetic pressure fluctuations at periods longer than 30 s are a ubiquitous feature of pressure spectra from instruments sited on the deep seafloor in both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. We show these pressure fluctuations are caused by freely propagating ocean surface waves. The waves are generated in the near shore region along the entire coastline of an ocean basin through nonlinear transfer of energy from short‐period waves. This view contrasts with some earlier work, which described these long‐period pressure fluctuations as trapped waves tied to groups of short waves. We have constructed a model based on the average energy in the short (wind driven and swell) wave band along the North Atlantic coast to predict the energy in the long wave band at a site in the Atlantic. Maximum likelihood wave number‐frequency spectra calculated on data from an 11 element array in the North Pacific confirm that the long wave energy is confined to wave numbers corresponding to the surface gravity wave dispersion relation. We have used the wave number spectra to isolate particular regions of the Pacific Ocean which are sources of long wave energy. Energetic short‐period waves are incident on the coastline in these regions. Long waves are detected at the array which originate in the Gulf of Alaska, the northwestern Pacific, and at the southern tip of South America.