Basic Sources of Internal Waves Generation in the Ocean

Abstract

There are different sources which induce internal waves in the ocean: they may be caused by oscillations of atmospheric pressure, wind, regions of the ocean’s bottom (during underwater earthquakes), by tidal forces etc.. Nonlinear mechanisms of internal waves generation, e.g., resonant interaction of surface waves for a flow over large bottom obstacles, are quite important. The generation of internal waves by oscillations of wind and atmospheric pressure is thoroughly studied in this chapter, the main attention being paid to resonant effects. The generation of internal waves by local initial disturbances is also considered in this chapter. Such disturbances may be induced by both atmospheric sources and different deformations of density and velocity fields. A brief overview of the other sources of the generation of internal waves is given in the conclusions of the chapter. Specific questions of wave generation by underwater earthquakes, tidal flows, and bottom obstacles are presented in [49], [179] and therefore are not considered here.