Open AccessDiurnal tides over Kashevarov Bank, Okhotsk Sea
Author(s) -
Kowalik Zygmunt,
Polyakov Igor
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/1998jc900100
Subject(s) - geology , baroclinity , advection , barotropic fluid , stratification (seeds) , internal tide , oceanography , residual , thermohaline circulation , climatology , geophysics , internal wave , physics , seed dormancy , germination , botany , algorithm , dormancy , biology , computer science , thermodynamics
Diurnal tidal waves K 1 and O 1 were studied using a primitive equation ocean circulation model with fine vertical resolution. The study focused on Kashevarov Bank, a shallow submarine bank at the northern continental slope of the Sea of Okhotsk. Owing to resonance, the currents over the bank are 20–30 times stronger than the off‐bank currents. The large current amplitudes of the basic tidal waves K 1 and O 1 , through nonlinear interactions, generate residual currents and new oscillations in the semidiurnal, fortnightly and other bands. The model predicts a strong clockwise residual circulation, with barotropic and baroclinic components. The latter is about 50% of the total residual flow over the bank top. To elucidate the role of various terms in maintenance of the residual motion, the time‐averaged momentum and heat balance equations were analyzed. The time‐averaged flow over the bank top is ageostrophic, and the horizontal advection is dominant in the tidal rectification. To demonstrate the influence of the tides on the thermohaline structure over Kashevarov Bank, horizontally uniform and vertically stratified initial temperature and salinity distributions were considered. Strong tidal mixing results in an almost homogeneous thermohaline structure and well‐developed internal tides over the bank summit. This fact demonstrates the role of tides in establishing the observed homogeneous stratification over Kashevarov Bank.