On the resonance and shelf/open-ocean coupling of the global diurnal tides

Abstract

The resonance of diurnal tidal elevations is investigated with a forward ocean tide model run in a realistic near-global domain and a synthesis of free oscillations (normal modes) computed for realistic global ocean geometries and ocean physics. As a prelude to performing the forward ocean tide simulations, the topographic wave drag, which is now commonly employed in forward ocean tide models, is tuned specifically for diurnal tides. The synthesis of global free oscillations predicts reasonably well the forward ocean diurnal tide model sensitivity to changes in the frequency, zonal structure, and meridional structure of the astronomical diurnal tidal forcing. Three global free oscillations that are important for understanding diurnal tides as a superposition of forced-damped, resonant, free oscillations are identified. An admittance analysis of the frequency sweep experiments demonstrates that some coastal locations such as the Sea of Okhotsk are resonant to diurnal tidal forcing. As in earlier work done with semidiurnal tides, a series of simulations are performed in which regions possessing significant coastal diurnal tides are blocked out. The largest perturbations to the open-ocean diurnal tides take place in Blocked Sea ofOkhotsk experiments. Lesser but still significant perturbations also arise from the blocking out of other regions of large diurnal tidal elevations or dissipation. Interpretation of the results is made more complex, however, by the fact that substantial perturbations also arise from blocking out regions where neither tidal elevations nor dissipation are large. The "blocking" experiments are relevant to understanding tides of the ice age, during which lower sea levels entail a reduced area of continental shelves. © 2013 American Meteorological Society.