Internal tide loss of coherence in a realistic simulation of the North Atlantic

Abstract. The loss of coherence of the semidiurnal internal tide is investigated using a high-resolution realistic numerical simulation over the North Atlantic. The analysis focuses on processes resulting from the interaction between the internal tide and the mesoscale background flow at time scales typically shorter than one month. To this end, a theoretical framework based on vertical mode decomposition and the splitting of the internal tide signal into coherent and incoherent components is developed and applied to the outputs of the numerical simulation. This framework enables the transfer terms between the coherent and incoherent parts, and between the different vertical modes – and therefore horizontal scales – of the internal tides to be evaluated. By focusing on three subdomains with contrasting dynamics, we demonstrate that coherent-to-incoherent energy transfers significantly impact the internal tide energy budget. These transfers are dominated by advection by slowly varying flows and mainly occur without changing the vertical mode of the internal tide involved. This is attributed to the dominance of the barotropic and first baroclinic modes in the mesoscale flow combined with the structure of the mesoscale flow/internal tide interaction terms. Typical energy transfer rates are of the order of a few tens of days in the Gulf Stream region and a few hundred days in the Azores for the mode 1 internal tide.