Toward Regional Characterizations of the Oceanic Internal Wavefield

Abstract

Many major oceanographic internal wave observational programs of the last 4 decades are reanalyzed in order to characterize variability of the deep ocean internal wavefield. The observations are discussed in the context of the universal spectral model proposed by Garrett and Munk. The Garrett and Munk model is a good description of wintertime conditions at Site-D on the continental rise north of the Gulf Stream. Elsewhere and at other times, significant deviations in terms of amplitude, separability of the 2-D vertical wavenumber - frequency spectrum, and departure from the model's functional form are noted. Subtle geographic patterns are apparent in deviations from the high frequency and high vertical wavenumber power laws of the Garrett and Munk spectrum. Moreover, such deviations tend to co-vary: whiter frequency spectra are partnered with redder vertical wavenumber spectra. Attempts are made to interpret the variability in terms of the interplay between generation, propagation and nonlinearity using a statistical radiative balance equation. This process frames major questions for future research with the insight that such integrative studies could constrain both observationally and theoretically based interpretations.

References in corpus (8)

• Hamiltonian formalism and the Garrett-Munk spectrum of internal waves in the ocean
• Statistical Description of Acoustic Turbulence
• Energy spectra of the ocean's internal wave field: theory and observations
• Joint statistics of amplitudes and phases in Wave Turbulence
• "Noisy" spectra, long correlations and intermittency in wave turbulence
• Wave turbulence in Bose-Einstein condensates
• Anomalous probability of large amplitudes in wave turbulence
• A Hamiltonian Formulation for Long Internal Waves

Cited by in corpus (17)

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• Restricted Equilibrium and the Energy Cascade in Rotating and Stratified Flows
• Simulating turbulent mixing caused by local instability of internal gravity waves
• Internal wave turbulence in a stratified fluid with and without eigenmodes of the experimental domain
• Nonlinear wave-wave interactions in stratified flows: Direct numerical simulations
• On the Origins of the Oceanic Ultraviolet Catastrophe
• Fast and Accurate Computation of Vertical Modes
• Energy cascade in the Garrett-Munk spectrum of internal gravity waves
• Energy spectra of non-local internal gravity wave turbulence
• Excitation of interfacial waves via near---resonant surface---interfacial wave interactions
• Lagrangian filtering for wave-mean flow decomposition
• Generation of weakly nonlinear turbulence of internal gravity waves in the Coriolis facility
• Laboratory observation of internal gravity wave turbulence in a three-dimensional, large-scale facility