Large amplitude internal waves in the coastal ocean (Preface)

© The Author(s), 2011. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics 18 (2011): 653-655, doi:10.5194/npg-18-653-2011.The flow in the coastal ocean, and especially on the continental shelf and slope is often characterized by the presence of very large-amplitude internal waves. These are waves which occur in the interior of the ocean, and propagate horizontally with a concentration of their energy around the oceanic pcynocline. They are usually generated by the interaction of the barotropic tide with the shelf break, topographic sill or with other prominent bottom features. This leads to the formation of an internal tide, which then deforms and evolves into a train of very large-amplitude internal waves, with associated large pycnocline displacements and strong currents. They are highly significant for sediment transport and for the biology on the continental shelf, their associated currents cause strong forces on marine platforms and submersibles, the associated strong distortion of the density field has a severe impact on acoustic signaling and their capacity to break and form microstructure has major consequences for the understanding of interior ocean mixing