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Abstract By dissipating energy and generating mixing, internal tides (ITs) are important for the climatological evolution of the ocean. Our understanding of this class of ocean variability is however hindered by the rarity of observations capable of capturing ITs with global coverage. The data provided by the Global Drifter Program (GDP) offer high temporal resolution and quasi-global coverage, thus bringing promising perspectives. However, due to their inherent drifting nature, these instruments provide a distorted view of the IT signal. By theoretically rationalizing this distortion and leveraging a massive synthetic drifter numerical simulation, we propose a global metric converting semi-diurnal IT energy levels from GDP data to levels comparable to Eulerian datasets (two numerical simulations, and a satellite altimetry IT atlas). We find that the simulation with a dedicated focus on IT representation is the one where the converted Lagrangian levels perform best. This supports renewed efforts in the concurrent numerical modeling of ITs/ocean circulation. The substantial deficit of energy in the IT atlas highlights the inability for altimetric estimates to measure incoherent and fine-scale ITs and strongly supports the need to isolate ITs signature in the data collected by the new wide-swath altimetry mission SWOT. 

Abstract Motivated by the importance of mixing arising from dissipating internal waves (IWs), vertical profiles of internal‐wave dissipation from a high‐resolution regional ocean model are compared with finestructure estimates made from observations. A horizontal viscosity scheme restricted to only act on horizontally rotational modes (such as eddies) is introduced and tested. At lower resolutions with horizontal grid spacings of 2 km, the modeled IW dissipation from numerical model agrees reasonably well with observations in some cases when the restricted form of horizontal viscosity is used. This suggests the possibility that if restricted forms of horizontal viscosity are adopted by global models with similar resolutions, they could be used to diagnose and map IW dissipation distributions. At higher resolutions with horizontal grid spacings of ∼250 m, the dissipation from vertical shear and horizontal viscosity act much more strongly resulting in dissipation overestimates; however, the vertical‐shear dissipation itself is found to agree well with observations. 

Abstract Through interactions with the continental margins, incident low‐mode internal tides (ITs) can be reflected, scattered to high modes, transmitted onto the shelf and dissipated. We investigate the fate of remotely generated mode‐1 ITs in the U.S. West Coast (USWC) continental margin using two 4‐km horizontal resolution regional simulations. These 1‐year long simulations have realistic stratification, and atmospheric, tidal, and sub‐tidal forcings. In addition, one of these simulations has remote internal wave (IW) forcing at the open boundaries while the other does not. To compute the IT reflectivity of the USWC margin, we separate the IT energy fluxes into onshore and offshore propagating components using a Discrete Fourier Transform in space and time. Overall, ∼20% of the remote mode‐1 semidiurnal IT energy fluxes reflect off the USWC margin, 40% is scattered to modes 2–5, and 7% is transmitted onto the shelf while the remaining is dissipated on the continental slope. Furthermore, our results reveal that differences in stratification, slope criticality, topographic roughness and angle of incidence cause these fractions to vary spatially and temporally along the USWC margin. However, there is no clear seasonal variability in these estimates. Remote IWs enhance the advection and diffusion of heat in the continental margin, resulting in cooling at the surface and warming at depth, and a reduction in the thermocline stratification. These results suggest that low‐mode ITs can cause water mass transformation in continental margins that are far away from their generation sites. 

Abstract The decay of the low‐mode internal tide due to the superharmonic energy cascade is investigated in a realistically forced global Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model simulation with 1/25° (4 km) horizontal grid spacing. Time‐mean and depth‐integrated supertidal kinetic energy is found to be largest near low‐latitude internal tide generation sites, such as the Bay of Bengal, Amazon Shelf, and Mascarene Ridge. The supertidal kinetic energy can make up to 50% of the total internal tide kinetic energy several hundred kilometers from the generation sites. As opposed to the tidal flux divergence, the supertidal flux divergence does not correlate with the barotropic to baroclinic energy conversion. Instead, the time‐mean and depth‐integrated supertidal flux divergence correlates with the nonlinear kinetic energy transfers from (sub)tidal to supertidal frequency bands as estimated with a novel coarse‐graining approach. The regular spaced banding patterns of the surface‐intensified nonlinear energy transfers are attributed to semidiurnal mode 1 and mode 2 internal waves that interfere constructively at the surface. This causes patches where both surface tidal kinetic energy and nonlinear energy transfers are elevated. The simulated internal tide off the Amazon Shelf steepens significantly near these patches, generating solitary‐like waves in good agreement with Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery. Globally, we find that regions of high supertidal energy flux also show a high correlation with observed instances of internal solitary waves. 

Abstract Internal tides (ITs) play a critical role in ocean mixing, and have strong signatures in ocean observations. Here, global IT sea surface height (SSH) in nadir altimetry is compared with an ocean forecast model that assimilates de‐tided SSH from nadir altimetry. The forecast model removes IT SSH variance from nadir altimetry at skill levels comparable to those achieved with empirical analysis of nadir altimetry. Accurate removal of IT SSH is needed to fully reveal lower‐frequency mesoscale eddies and currents in altimeter data. Analysis windows of order 30–120 days, made possible by the frequent (hourly) outputs of the forecast model, remove more IT SSH variance than longer windows. Forecast models offer a promising new approach for global internal tide mapping and altimetry correction. Because they provide information on the full water column, forecast models can also help to improve understanding of the underlying dynamics of ITs. 

Abstract Oceanic mixing, mostly driven by the breaking of internal waves at small scales in the ocean interior, is of major importance for ocean circulation and the ocean response to future climate scenarios. Understanding how internal waves transfer their energy to smaller scales from their generation to their dissipation is therefore an important step for improving the representation of ocean mixing in climate models. In this study, the processes leading to cross-scale energy fluxes in the internal wave field are quantified using an original decomposition approach in a realistic numerical simulation of the California Current. We quantify the relative contribution of eddy–internal wave interactions and wave–wave interactions to these fluxes and show that eddy–internal wave interactions are more efficient than wave–wave interactions in the formation of the internal wave continuum spectrum. Carrying out twin numerical simulations, where we successively activate or deactivate one of the main internal wave forcing, we also show that eddy–near-inertial internal wave interactions are more efficient in the cross-scale energy transfer than eddy–tidal internal wave interactions. This results in the dissipation being dominated by the near-inertial internal waves over tidal internal waves. A companion study focuses on the role of stimulated cascade on the energy and enstrophy fluxes. 

Abstract The internal wave (IW) continuum of a regional ocean model is studied in terms of the vertical spectral kinetic energy (KE) fluxes and transfers at high vertical wavenumbers. Previous work has shown that this model permits a partial representation of the IW cascade. In this work, vertical spectral KE flux is decomposed into catalyst, source, and destination vertical modes and frequency bands of nonlinear scattering, a framework that allows for the discernment of different types of nonlinear interactions involving both waves and eddies. Energy transfer within the supertidal IW continuum is found to be strongly dependent on resolution. Specifically, at a horizontal grid spacing of 1/48°, most KE in the supertidal continuum arrives there from lower-frequency modes through a single nonlinear interaction, whereas at 1/384° and with sufficient vertical resolution KE transfers within the supertidal IW continuum are comparable in size to KE transfer from lower-frequency modes. Additionally, comparisons are made with existing theoretical and observational work on energy pathways in the IW continuum. Induced diffusion (ID) is found to be associated with a weak forward frequency transfer within the supertidal IW continuum. ID is also limited to the highest vertical wavenumbers and is more sensitive to resolution relative to spectrally local interactions. At the same time, ID-like processes involving high-vertical-wavenumber near-inertial and tidal waves as well as low-vertical-wavenumber eddy fields are substantial, suggesting that the processes giving rise to a Garrett–Munk-like spectra in the present numerical simulation and perhaps the real ocean may be more varied than in idealized or wave-only frameworks. 

Abstract Internal waves contain a large amount of energy in the ocean and are an important source of turbulent mixing. Ocean mixing is relevant for climate because it drives vertical transport of water, heat, carbon and other tracers. Understanding the life cycle of internal waves, from generation to dissipation, is therefore important for improving the representation of ocean mixing in climate models. Here, we provide evidence from a regional realistic numerical simulation in the northeastern Pacific that the wind can play an important role in damping internal waves through current feedback. This results in a reduction of 67% of wind power input at near-inertial frequencies in the region of study. Wind-current feedback also provides a net energy sink for internal tides, removing energy at a rate of 0.2 mW/m$$^2$$ ${}^2$on average, corresponding to 8% of the local internal tide generation at the Mendocino ridge. The temporal variability and modal distribution of this energy sink are also investigated. 

Abstract We present improvements in the modeling of the vertical wavenumber spectrum of the internal gravity wave continuum in high‐resolution regional ocean simulations. We focus on model sensitivities to mixing parameters and comparisons to McLane moored profiler observations in a Pacific region near the Hawaiian Ridge, which features strong semidiurnal tidal beams. In these simulations, the modeled continuum exhibits high sensitivity to the background mixing components of the K‐Profile Parameterization (KPP) vertical mixing scheme. Without the KPP background mixing, stronger vertical gradients in velocity are sustained in the simulations and the modeled kinetic energy and shear spectral slopes are significantly closer to the observations. The improved representation of internal wave dynamics in these simulations makes them suitable for improving ocean mixing estimates and for the interpretation of satellite missions such as the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission. 

Abstract High-frequency precipitation variance is calculated in 12 different free-running (non-data-assimilative) coupled high resolution atmosphere–ocean model simulations, an assimilative coupled atmosphere–ocean weather forecast model, and an assimilative reanalysis. The results are compared with results from satellite estimates of precipitation and rain gauge observations. An analysis of irregular sub-daily fluctuations, which was applied by Covey et al. (Geophys Res Lett 45:12514–12522, 2018.https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078926) to satellite products and low-resolution climate models, is applied here to rain gauges and higher-resolution models. In contrast to lower-resolution climate simulations, which Covey et al. (2018) found to be lacking with respect to variance in irregular sub-daily fluctuations, the highest-resolution simulations examined here display an irregular sub-daily fluctuation variance that lies closer to that found in satellite products. Most of the simulations used here cannot be analyzed via the Covey et al. (2018) technique, because they do not output precipitation at sub-daily intervals. Thus the remainder of the paper focuses on frequency power spectral density of precipitation and on cumulative distribution functions over time scales (2–100 days) that are still relatively “high-frequency” in the context of climate modeling. Refined atmospheric or oceanic model grid spacing is generally found to increase high-frequency precipitation variance in simulations, approaching the values derived from observations. Mesoscale-eddy-rich ocean simulations significantly increase precipitation variance only when the atmosphere grid spacing is sufficiently fine (< 0.5°). Despite the improvements noted above, all of the simulations examined here suffer from the “drizzle effect”, in which precipitation is not temporally intermittent to the extent found in observations.