Turbulence Driven by Reflected Internal Tides in a Supercritical Submarine Canyon

The La Jolla Canyon System (LJCS) is a small, steep, shelf-incising canyon offshore of San Diego, California. Observations conducted in the fall of 2016 capture the dynamics of internal tides and turbulence patterns. Semidiurnal (D-2) energy flux was oriented up-canyon; 62% +/- 20% of the signal was contained in mode 1 at the offshore mooring. The observed mode-1 D-2 tide was partly standing based on the ratio of group speed times energy c(g)E and energy flux F. Enhanced dissipation occurred near the canyon head at middepths associated with elevated strain arising from the standing wave pattern. Modes 2-5 were progressive, and energy fluxes associated with these modes were oriented down-canyon, suggesting that incident mode-1 waves were back-reflected and scattered. Flux integrated over all modes across a given canyon cross section was always onshore and generally decreased moving shoreward (from 240 +/- 15 to 5 +/- 0.3 kW), with a 50-kW increase in flux occurring on a section inshore of the canyon's major bend, possibly due to reflection of incident waves from the supercritical sidewalls of the bend. Flux convergence from canyon mouth to head was balanced by the volume-integrated dissipation observed. By comparing energy budgets from a global compendium of canyons with sufficient observations (six in total), a similar balance was found. One exception was Juan de Fuca Canyon, where such a balance was not found, likely due to its nontidal flows. These results suggest that internal tides incident at the mouth of a canyon system are dissipated therein rather than leaking over the sidewalls or siphoning energy to other wave frequencies.

Automated summary

The study on La Jolla Canyon System (LJCS) reveals that internal tides mainly dissipate within the canyon system instead of leaking over the sidewalls or siphoning energy to other wave frequencies. The mode-1 tide shows partly standing characteristics, while modes 2-5 exhibit progressive features.