Internal Wave Breaking and Dissipation Mechanisms on the Continental Slope/Shelf

Abstract

Internal waves are important physical phenomena on the continental shelf/slope. They are often very energetic, and their breaking provides an important dissipation and mixing mechanism, with implications for biological productivity and sediment transport. Internal waves appear in a variety of forms and can break in a variety of ways. A consequence of their dispersion properties is the breaking of waves reflecting from, or being generated at, near-critical slopes. Breaking mechanisms associated with internal solitary waves include bottom boundary layer instabilities, shear instabilities in the interior of the water column, and wave overturning as they shoal. Shoaling can result in the formation of waves with trapped cores either at the surface or at the bottom. Theoretical, numerical, and laboratory studies have largely focused on simple geometries, whereas recent work has shown that the situation in the ocean is often much more complicated because of more complex geometries and the presence of a full hierarchy of fluid motions.