Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:18:45.004Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Structure of the Internal Tide at the Celtic Sea Shelf Break

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

R. D. Pingree
Affiliation:
Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley, Godalming, Surrey, GU UB
D. K. Griffiths
Affiliation:
Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley, Godalming, Surrey, GU UB
G. T. Mardell
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL PB

Extract

Measurements at sea in the Biscay and Celtic Sea have shown that the peak to trough displacement of the internal tide maximises at the shelf break of the Celtic Sea with peak to trough values in excess of 50 m at spring tides during the summer. In this region the internal tide generated at the top of the slopes is highly distorted by the shelf barotropic tidal currents. The internal tide propagates on-shelf towards the coast and off-slope towards the ocean as a decaying progressive wave. A simple model is developed that illustrates many of the observed features of the measured structure of the internal tide.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Korteweg, D. J. & De Vries, G. 1895. On the change of form of long waves advancing in a rectangular canal, and on a new type of long stationary waves. Philosophical Magazine, 39, 422443.Google Scholar
Lamb, H. 1975. Hydrodynamics, 6th ed. 738 pp. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maze, M. R. 1980. Formation d'Ondes internes stationnaires sur le talus continental. Application au Golfe de Gascogne. Annales hydrographiques, 754, 4558.Google Scholar
Maze, M. R. 1983. Movements Internes induits dans un Golfe par le Passage d'une Depression et par la Marée. Application au Golfe de Gascogne. Thése Docteur ès — Sciences Physiques, l'Université de Bretagne Occidentale.Google Scholar
Pingree, R. D. & Mardell, G. T. 1981. Slope turbulence, internal waves and phytoplankton growth at the Celtic Sea shelf-break. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (A), 302, 663682.Google Scholar
Pingree, R. D.Mardell, G. T.Holligan, P. M.Griffiths, D. K. & Smithers, J. 1982. Celtic Sea and Armorican current structure and the vertical distribution of temperature and chlorophyll ‘a’. Continental Shelf Research, 1, 99116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Proudman, J. 1953. Dynamical Oceanography. 409 pp. Methuen.Google Scholar
Stride, A. H. 1963. Current-swept sea floors near the southern half of Great Britain. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 119, 175199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar