Tidal energy fluxes and dissipation on the European continental shelf

Abstract

The spatial distribution of the energy flux, energy dissipation, current magnitude, and surface elevation amplitude of the major tidal constituents over the northwest European shelf are examined in detail. These distributions are obtained from the harmonic analysis of a 6 month three‐dimensional simulation of 28 tidal constituents. The model currents are validated by a comparison of computed tidal harmonics against those derived from a harmonic analysis of up to 278 current time series. A similar comparison is performed for tidal elevations based on 257 tide gauges. Calculations show that for the most significant tidal constituents (e.g., M2, S2 and K2) there is a major energy flux in the deep water along the shelf edge off the northwest of Scotland, with some energy leaking onto the shelf and into the North Sea. A second source of energy is across the shelf edge at the southern end of the Celtic Sea, with this energy flux propagating into the Irish Sea and southern North Sea, where the majority of the energy is dissipation in the shallow regions. Significantly different distributions are found for the diurnal and shallow water constituents, and the spatial distributions of energy flux and dissipation of the various constituents are considered. The accuracy of separating tidal current harmonics using model data of less than a synodic period is examined with reference to the S2 and K2 tide. Calculations suggest that the accuracy of computed currents comparable to those obtained from observations can be obtained from an analysis of a 60 day period compared with the synodic period for S2 and K2 of 182 days, a significant saving in computer time.