Shelf waves with diurnal tidal frequency at the Greenland shelf edge

• Published in: Deep-sea research. Part I, Oceanographic research papers Vol. 46; no. 5; pp. 895 - 923
• Main Author: Lam, Frans-Peter A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-05-1999; Elsevier; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; Marine; Oceanography; Oceans; Physics of the oceans; Surface waves, tides and sea level. Seiches; Tides; North America; Greenland; America; ANE, Greenland; Greenland Sea; Diurnal wave; Two dimensional model; Current measurement; Continental slope; Continental shelf; Tidal current
• ISSN: 0967-0637; 1879-0119
• DOI: 10.1016/S0967-0637(98)00090-9

Tidal analysis was carried out on current measurements at a “cross-shelf” transect off Greenland at 71°N. The diurnal tides manifest themselves mainly as a barotropic continental shelf wave, travelling southward along the shelf slope. This follows from the amplitude distribution of the diurnal tidal components and from the rotation sense of the tidal ellipses at different cross-slope locations, as calculated with simple two-dimensional models. The well organized cross-slope pattern of the velocity amplitudes is absent in observations further north near 75°N. These observations suggest that the local vanishing of the group velocity, which is caused by topography, is of importance for the existence and local amplification of these continental shelf waves with diurnal tidal frequency.