Speaker

Ruth Musgrave, Ph.D., Asst. Professor of Oceanography, Dalhousie University

The Role of Super-Inertial, Coastally Trapped Waves in Tidal Energy Pathways

Abstract

In this talk I will discuss tidal energy pathways with a focus on the role of coastally trapped waves. In particular, I will describe the generation of super-inertial coastally trapped waves by the scattering of low-mode internal tides at a corrugated shelfbreak. These “leaky” waves are coupled to freely propagating inertia-gravity waves, but have the potential to carry energy far along the coastal boundary.  These waves tend to have small vertical and horizontal scales, and their generation has implications for the dissipation of tidal energy at coastal boundaries.