Satellite observations of internal waves on the Australian north-west shelf

Abstract

This paper describes the results of a search of the existing Landsat (1 and 2) imagery catalogue for tidally generated internal waves over the continental shelves of Australia and New Zealand. The only area where such waves were observed was the Australian north-west shelf where they were found in abundance from the North West Cape to the latitude of Darwin. Wavelengths were in the range 300-1000 m with typical speeds of 0.5-1 m s-1, and spacing between wave packets of 25 km.