Infragravity waves across the oceans

Abstract

Ocean infragravity (IG) waves are low-frequency waves generated along shorelines by incident seas and swell and with heights of the order of 1 cm in the open ocean. Despite these small amplitudes, they can be of much importance for ice shelf break up and errors in measurements of sea level by future satellite altimeters. A combination of numerical model results and in situ data is used to show that bottom pressure signals in the infragravity frequency band can be dominated by bursts of energy that travel across ocean basins, and can last for several days. Two particularly strong events recorded in 2008 are studied, one in the North-Pacific and the other in the North-Atlantic. It is shown that infragravity waves can travel across whole oceans basins with the signal recorded on the western shores often dominated by IG waves coming from the opposite shore of that same ocean basin.