A rough recipe for the energy balance of quasi-steady lee waves

Abstract. Recent fine- and microstructure observations indicate enhanced finescale shear and strain in conjunction with bottom intensified turbulent dissipation above regions of rough bathymetry. Such observations implicate the bottom boundary as an energy source for the finescale internal wavefield. They also pose a question. Can the vertical profile of turbulent dissipation be predicted from a model of wave generation which serves as input to a model describing how internal wave energy is transferred to dissipation scales as waves propagate away from their source region? This paper attempts to address that question in the context of quasi-steady lee wave generation and dissipation.