Open AccessOn barotropic and baroclinic tides over an arbitrary sloping topography
Author(s) -
J. Y. Le Tareau,
R. Mazé
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
annales geophysicae
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.522
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1432-0576
pISSN - 0992-7689
DOI - 10.1007/s00585-996-0961-2
Subject(s) - barotropic fluid , baroclinity , geology , classification of discontinuities , forcing (mathematics) , geophysics , discontinuity (linguistics) , internal tide , continental shelf , geometry , geodesy , mechanics , climatology , physics , mathematical analysis , oceanography , mathematics , internal wave
Some theoretical concepts about thefrictionless dynamics of propagation of the barotropic tide over two-dimensionalcontinental slopes of arbitrary shape are developed. A numerical procedure whichgeneralizes the exact solution obtained over a rectilinear sloping topography isgiven. This technique can be applied to compute the harmonic components of thebarotropic tide everywhere over sloping bottom contours of any shape. It permitsin particular the avoidance of discontinuities at the boundaries ofrectilinear-continental-slope profiles. The barotropic tidal results are usedafterwards to calculate the barotropic forcing for the generation of internaltides. Numerical experiments are performed to study the interaction between thetide and some typical sloping topographies. A three-layered model is used forthis purpose. Results are compared with those previously obtained over arectilinear continental slope