Manikandan Mathur

Internal waves in the ocean are well-recognized to play an important role in the global energy budget. Triadic resonance is one mechanism via which these internal waves transfer their energy to other spatial and temporal scales before dissipation, at locations blue both near and away from their generation sites. In this paper, we perform a combined theoretical and numerical study of triadic resonance in internal wave modes in a finite-depth ocean with an arbitrary stratification profile. Considering internal waves generated at spatially localized regions, the spatial evolution of the modal amplitudes within a resonant triad are derived based on the method of multiple scales. Two representative cases are considered: (i) modes 1 and 2 at a specific frequency ω0 in triadic resonance with the mode-1 superharmonic wave (frequency 2ω0) in a uniform stratification, and (ii) a self-interacting mode-3 at a specific frequency ω0 in triadic resonance with the mode-2 at frequency 2ω0 in an ocean-like nonuniform stratification. In case (ii), any initial energy in mode-3 at frequency ω0 gets permanently transferred to mode-2 at frequency 2ω0. Numerical simulations are performed to show the spontaneous excitation of superharmonic internal waves resulting from modal interactions in the aforementioned cases, and quantitatively validate the initial spatial evolution of the wave field predicted by the amplitude evolution equations. Furthermore, numerical simulations at off-resonant frequencies are used to identify the range of primary wave frequencies (around the resonant frequency) over which spontaneous superharmonic wave excitation occurs. Quantitative estimates of energy transfer rates within the resonant triads considered show that superharmonic wave excitation resulting from modal interactions should be an important consideration alongside other triadic resonances like parametric subharmonic instability (PSI). We conclude by giving estimates of the relative importance of superharmonic wave excitation in the ocean, and provide motivation for future studies.

An established analytical technique for modeling internal tide generation by barotropic flow over bottom topography in the ocean is the Green function-based approach. To date, however, for realistic ocean studies this method has relied on the WKB approximation. In this paper, the complete Green function method, without the WKB approximation, is developed and tested, and in the process, the accuracy of the WKB approximation for realistic ridge geometries and ocean stratifications is considered. For isolated Gaussian topography, the complete Green function approach is shown to be accurate via close agreement with the results of numerical simulations for a wide range of height ratios and criticality; in contrast, the WKB approach is found to be inaccurate for small height ratios in the subcritical regime and all tall topography that impinges on the pycnocline. Two ocean systems are studied, the Kaena and Wyville Thomson Ridges, for which there is again excellent agreement between the complete Green function approach and numerical simulations, and the WKB approximate solutions have substantial errors. This study concludes that the complete Green function approach, which is typically only modestly more computationally expensive than the WKB approach, should be the go-to analytical method to model internal tide generation for realistic ocean ridge scenarios.