Spectral analysis of the efficiency of vertical mixing in the deep ocean due to interaction of tidal currents with a ridge running down a continental slope

Journal Article · Wed Oct 29 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena, 9(5):119-137

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1051/mmnp/20149508· OSTI ID:1167300

Ibragimov, Ranis N.; Tartakovsky, Alexandre M.

Efficiency of mixing, resulting from the reflection of an internal wave field imposed on the oscillatory background flow with a three-dimensional bottom topography, is investigated using a linear approximation. The radiating wave field is associated with the spectrum of the linear model, which consists of those mode numbers n and slope values α, for which the solution represents the internal waves of frequencies ω = nω0 radiating upwrad of the topography, where ω0 is the fundamental frequency at which internal waves are generated at the topography. The effects of the bottom topography and the earth’s rotation on the spectrum is analyzed analytically and numerically in the vicinity of the critical slope, which is a slope with the same angle to the horizontal as the internal wave characteristic. In this notation, θ is latitude, f is the Coriolis parameter and N is the buoyancy frequency, which is assumed to be a constant, which corresponds to the uniform stratification.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1167300
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-107018; KJ0401000
• Journal Information: Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena, 9(5):119-137, Journal Name: Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena, 9(5):119-137
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English