Dissipation of internal waves generated by geostrophic motions over small scale topography

Pierre Labreuche (1)

1 LEGI - Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels [Grenoble]

Deep reaching geostrophic flows in the Southern Ocean are suspected to energize internal lee waves close to bottom topography. Recent studies suggest that these internal lee waves generated in the Southern Ocean could largely be dissipated close to bottom topography. Nikurashin and Ferrari (2010b) proposed from two-dimensionnal numerical simulations that such bottom intensification may result from coupling between these waves and inertial oscillations. We have studied the spatial distribution of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation resulting from this coupling.

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère

Pierre Labreuche. Dissipation of internal waves generated by geostrophic motions over small scale topography. Symposium OGOA, May 2013, Lyon, France. ⟨hal-00855044⟩