Observations of Near-Inertial Waves in a Front

Abstract

Near-inertial with horizontal scales ?O(10 km) dominate profiles of velocity finestructure collected in the North Pacific Subtropical Front during January 1980. Considerable spatial variability is observed. Two features in particular contain most of the energy: a 20 cm s?1 amplitude (?z = 100 m) wave on the warm edge of the front propagating downward and away from the front, and a low wavenumber (?z = 500 m) wave reflecting off the surface. The propagating wavegroup is four times as energetic as the local downgoing near-inertial wave field. Its spatial structure is not consistent with propagation in a homogeneous medium, which suggests that it may be interacting with the front. Possible mechanisms for the existence and properties of the wavegroup are discussed, including baroclinic/barotropic instability, wind-forcing and enhancement by wave-mean flow interaction. a wave-mean flow interaction model that predicts trapping and amplification of near-inertial flow interaction. A wave-mean flow interaction model that predicts trapping and amplification of near-inertial waves in regions of negative vorticity reproduces the observed features most consistently.