Internal Tide Structure and Temporal Variability on the Reflective Continental Slope of Southeastern Tasmania

Abstract Mode-1 internal tides can propagate far away from their generation sites, but how and where energy is dissipated not well understood. One example the semidiurnal tide generated south of New Zealand, which propagates over a thousand kilometers before impinging on continental slope Tasmania. In situ observations model results recent process-study experiment are used to characterize spatial temporal variability southeastern Tasman slope, previous studies have quantified large reflectivity. As expected, standing wave pattern broadly explains cross-slope vertical structure observed tide. However, highlight several additional features slope. The sloping bottom as small-scale bathymetric corrugations lead bottom-enhanced tidal energy. Over corrugations, larger currents isopycnal displacements along trough opposed crest. Despite long-range propagation tide, most in density accounted by spring–neap cycle. timing spring consistent with single remote instead explained complex interference between local These suggest that identifying multiple waves an interaction topography important step modeling dissipation.