AIR-COUPLED LONG WAVES IN THE OCEAN

Abstract

An IGY tsunami recorder at Texas Tower No. 4 off New York has detected ocean waves of periods from 4 to 10 min which have amplitudes up to 100 times greater than atmospheric pressure oscillations which occurred simultaneously. The latter are shown to be pressure perturbations generated by internal surface waves on a frontal discontinuity aloft. These waves appeared to have travelled out from the coast with a velocity about the same as that for free gravity waves in the water. The long ocean waves are explained as originating from resonant coupling between the atmospheric waves and the gravity waves produced by the traveling pressure perturbations.