Standing Waves in the Ocean

Abstract

Standing-wave spectra, namely those which have significant energy in opposite wavenumbers, are quite common in the North Atlantic and other parts of the open ocean. In addition they occur near the centres of hurricanes and in the wakes of moving atmospheric depressions; also near steep coastlines capable of reflecting significant amounts of wave energy. Standing waves generally can have steeper slopes and larger accelerations than progressive waves, and tend to throw up spray and droplets into the atmospheric boundary layer. Detection of standing-wave conditions at large distances is made possible by the elastic waves (microseismic) that they generate in the water and sea bed and in the adjacent land. Similar waves (microbaroms) in the atmosphere detected by a directional array of infrasound sensors in the Netherlands have been used to map standing-wave energy in the entire North Atlantic.