Mathematical Geosciences Seminar - William Xu

About this event

William Xu, Oceanography, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)

Sea Level Decomposition Separating the Contribution from the Barotropic and Baroclinic tides to the Sea Level Anomaly

Tides represent the most direct manifestation of the astronomical forcing on the Earth. The astronomical tidal potential constitutes a significant energy input into the ocean and one of the major energy sources for oceanic internal wave dynamics. Of the 3.5 TW tidal energy input on the global scale, about 30% is converted to the internal wave energy through tide-topography interaction in the deep ocean. While the surface tides are largely barotropic and are characterized by the sea level fluctuations, internal tides are baroclinic and are primarily characterized by the density changes within the water column. Nonetheless, internal tides can also cause sea level fluctuations, despite the much smaller amplitudes than those caused by surface tides. In this talk, I will discuss a method for detecting the sea surface signals of internal tide propagation, based on the normal mode expansion of the hydrostatic pressure. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated through the horizontal scale separation of the sea level anomaly from a global tidally forced simulation.

Passcode for this talk is math-geo