The generation of superinertial coastally trapped waves by scattering at the coast

Abstract

A series of idealized numerical simulations is used to examine the generation of mode-one superinertial coastally trapped waves (CTW). In the first set of simulations, CTW are resonantly generated when freely propagating mode-one internal tides are incident on the coast such that the angle of incidence of the internal wave causes the projected wavenumber of the tide on the coast to satisfy a triad relationship with the wavenumbers of the bathymetry and the CTW. In the second set of simulations, CTW are generated by the interaction of the barotropic tide with topography that has the same scales as the CTW. Under resonant conditions superinertial coastally trapped waves are a leading order coastal process, with along-shore current magnitudes that can be larger than the barotropic or internal tides from which they are generated.