Observations of Internal Tides in the Arctic Ocean

Abstract

This chapter describes the measurements of internal tides in the Pacific Ocean together with modeling of the generation and propagation of internal tides in some important regions of the Pacific. The generation of internal tides is associated with the interaction of the currents of the barotropic tide with the slopes of the bottom topography. One of the most important ideas presented here is the strong generation of internal tides over submarine ridges. The generation and propagation of strong internal tides over the Aleutian and Hawaiian ridges and in the South China Sea are described. The generation of internal tides in the regions of internal tides that are of high but still lower energy than those near the Aleutian Islands is revealed over the Kyushu-Palau and Emperor ridges and over the Mendocino Escarpment. Attention is focused on the measurements of internal tides in the Northwest Pacific where the Megapolygon experiment was conducted with 173 moorings. Measurements of internal tides on mooring clusters confirm the well known fact that internal tides are generated over the bottom slopes. The propagation of beams of internal tides from the top of a seamount was found in the East Pacific.