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Nonlinear energy transfer and the energy balance of the internal wave field in the deep ocean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2006

Dirk J. Olbers
Dirk J. Olbers
Affiliation:
Institut für Geophysik, Universität Hamburg, Germany
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Abstract

The source function describing the energy transfer between the components of the internal wave spectrum due to nonlinear interactions is derived from the Lagrangian of the fluid motion and evaluated numerically for the spectral models of Garrett & Munk (1972a, 1975). The characteristic time scales of the transfer are found to be typically of the order of some days, so that nonlinear interactions will play an important role in the energy balance of the wave field. Thus implications of the nonlinear transfer within the spectrum for generation and dissipation processes are considered.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , 23 March 1976 , pp. 375 - 399
Copyright
© 1976 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Contribution from the Sonderforschungsbereich 94 ‘Meeresforschung Hamburg’.

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