Laboratory experiments on the generation of internal tidal beams over steep slopes

Louis Gostiaux (1) , Thierry Dauxois (1)

1 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon

We designed a simple laboratory experiment to study internal tides generation. We consider a steep continental shelf, for which the internal tide is shown to be emitted from the critical point, which is clearly amphidromic. We also discuss the dependence of the width of the emitted beam on the local curvature of topography and on viscosity. Finally we derive the form of the resulting internal tidal beam by drawing an analogy with an oscillating cylinder in a static fluid.

Mots clés: Stratified fluids; Internal waves; Internal tides

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Louis Gostiaux, Thierry Dauxois. Laboratory experiments on the generation of internal tidal beams over steep slopes. Physics of Fluids, 2007, 19 (2), pp.028102. ⟨10.1063/1.2472511⟩. ⟨ensl-00122943⟩