Scotti
Alberto
Scotti
Alberto
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ArticleLarge amplitude internal waves in the coastal ocean (Preface)(Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union and the American Geophysical Union, 2011-10-07) Grimshaw, Roger H. J. ; Helfrich, Karl R. ; Scotti, AlbertoThe flow in the coastal ocean, and especially on the continental shelf and slope is often characterized by the presence of very large-amplitude internal waves. These are waves which occur in the interior of the ocean, and propagate horizontally with a concentration of their energy around the oceanic pcynocline. They are usually generated by the interaction of the barotropic tide with the shelf break, topographic sill or with other prominent bottom features. This leads to the formation of an internal tide, which then deforms and evolves into a train of very large-amplitude internal waves, with associated large pycnocline displacements and strong currents. They are highly significant for sediment transport and for the biology on the continental shelf, their associated currents cause strong forces on marine platforms and submersibles, the associated strong distortion of the density field has a severe impact on acoustic signaling and their capacity to break and form microstructure has major consequences for the understanding of interior ocean mixing.
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ArticleOn the interpretation of energy and energy fluxes of nonlinear internal waves : an example from Massachusetts Bay(Cambridge University Press, 2006-08-09) Scotti, Alberto ; Beardsley, Robert C. ; Butman, BradfordA self-consistent formalism to estimate baroclinic energy densities and fluxes resulting from the propagation of internal waves of arbitrary amplitude is derived using the concept of available potential energy. The method can be applied to numerical, laboratory or field data.
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ArticleShoaling of nonlinear internal waves in Massachusetts Bay(American Geophysical Union, 2008-08-19) Scotti, Alberto ; Beardsley, Robert C. ; Butman, Bradford ; Pineda, JesusThe shoaling of the nonlinear internal tide in Massachusetts Bay is studied with a fully nonlinear and nonhydrostatic model. The results are compared with current and temperature observations obtained during the August 1998 Massachusetts Bay Internal Wave Experiment and observations from a shorter experiment which took place in September 2001. The model shows how the approaching nonlinear undular bore interacts strongly with a shoaling bottom, offshore of where KdV theory predicts polarity switching should occur. It is shown that the shoaling process is dominated by nonlinearity, and the model results are interpreted with the aid of a two-layer nonlinear but hydrostatic model. After interacting with the shoaling bottom, the undular bore emerges on the shallow shelf inshore of the 30-m isobath as a nonlinear internal tide with a range of possible shapes, all of which are found in the available observational record.
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PreprintThe formation and fate of internal waves in the South China Sea( 2015-03) Alford, Matthew H. ; Peacock, Thomas ; MacKinnon, Jennifer A. ; Nash, Jonathan D. ; Buijsman, Maarten C. ; Centurioni, Luca R. ; Chao, Shenn-Yu ; Chang, Ming-Huei ; Farmer, David M. ; Fringer, Oliver B. ; Fu, Ke-Hsien ; Gallacher, Patrick C. ; Graber, Hans C. ; Helfrich, Karl R. ; Jachec, Steven M. ; Jackson, Christopher R. ; Klymak, Jody M. ; Ko, Dong S. ; Jan, Sen ; Johnston, T. M. Shaun ; Legg, Sonya ; Lee, I-Huan ; Lien, Ren-Chieh ; Mercier, Matthieu J. ; Moum, James N. ; Musgrave, Ruth C. ; Park, Jae-Hun ; Pickering, Andrew I. ; Pinkel, Robert ; Rainville, Luc ; Ramp, Steven R. ; Rudnick, Daniel L. ; Sarkar, Sutanu ; Scotti, Alberto ; Simmons, Harper L. ; St Laurent, Louis C. ; Venayagamoorthy, Subhas K. ; Wang, Yu-Huai ; Wang, Joe ; Yang, Yiing-Jang ; Paluszkiewicz, Theresa ; Tang, Tswen YungInternal gravity waves, the subsurface analogue of the familiar surface gravity waves that break on beaches, are ubiquitous in the ocean. Because of their strong vertical and horizontal currents, and the turbulent mixing caused by their breaking, they impact a panoply of ocean processes, such as the supply of nutrients for photosynthesis1, sediment and pollutant transport2 and acoustic transmission3; they also pose hazards for manmade structures in the ocean4. Generated primarily by the wind and the tides, internal waves can travel thousands of kilometres from their sources before breaking5, posing severe challenges for their observation and their inclusion in numerical climate models, which are sensitive to their effects6-7. Over a decade of studies8-11 have targeted the South China Sea, where the oceans’ most powerful internal waves are generated in the Luzon Strait and steepen dramatically as they propagate west. Confusion has persisted regarding their generation mechanism, variability and energy budget, however, due to the lack of in-situ data from the Luzon Strait, where extreme flow conditions make measurements challenging. Here we employ new observations and numerical models to (i) show that the waves begin as sinusoidal disturbances rather than from sharp hydraulic phenomena, (ii) reveal the existence of >200-m-high breaking internal waves in the generation region that give rise to turbulence levels >10,000 times that in the open ocean, (iii) determine that the Kuroshio western boundary current significantly refracts the internal wave field emanating from the Luzon Strait, and (iv) demonstrate a factor-of-two agreement between modelled and observed energy fluxes that enables the first observationally-supported energy budget of the region. Together, these findings give a cradle-to-grave picture of internal waves on a basin scale, which will support further improvements of their representation in numerical climate predictions.
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ArticleObservation of very large and steep internal waves of elevation near the Massachusetts coast(American Geophysical Union, 2004-11-25) Scotti, Alberto ; Pineda, JesusWe report on near-bottom waves of elevation with amplitude nearly half the 25 m water column, very steep, and propagating into a sheared turbulent wave-guide. The waves contained trapped cores transporting parcels of water shoreward. These large waves depart strongly from weakly-nonlinear and weakly-nonhydrostatic conditions and challenge established paradigms. They can also represent an important factor in the across-shore transport of plankton and contaminants.
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ArticleLarge internal waves in Massachusetts Bay transport sediments offshore(Elsevier B.V., 2006-09-26) Butman, Bradford ; Alexander, P. Soupy ; Scotti, Alberto ; Beardsley, Robert C. ; Anderson, Steven P.A field experiment was carried out in Massachusetts Bay in August 1998 to assess the role of large-amplitude internal waves (LIWs) in resuspending bottom sediments. The field experiment consisted of a four-element moored array extending from just west of Stellwagen Bank (90-m water depth) across Stellwagen Basin (85- and 50-m water depth) to the coast (24-m water depth). The LIWs were observed in packets of 5–10 waves, had periods of 5–10 min and wavelengths of 200–400 m, and caused downward excursions of the thermocline of as much as 30 m. At the 85-m site, the current measured 1 m above bottom (mab) typically increased from near 0 to 0.2 m/s offshore in a few minutes upon arrival of the LIWs. At the 50-m site, the near-bottom offshore flow measured 6 mab increased from about 0.1 to 0.4–0.6 m/s upon arrival of the LIWs and remained offshore in the bottom layer for 1–2 h. The near-bottom currents associated with the LIWs, in concert with the tidal currents, were directed offshore and sufficient to resuspend the bottom sediments at both the 50- and 85-m sites. When LIWs are present, they may resuspend sediments for as long as 5 hours each tidal cycle as they travel westward across Stellwagen Basin. At 85-m water depth, resuspension associated with LIWs is estimated to occur for about 0.4 days each summer, about the same amount of time as caused by surface waves.
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ArticleA modified beam-to-earth transformation to measure short-wavelength internal waves with an acoustic Doppler current profiler(American Meteorological Society, 2005-05) Scotti, Alberto ; Butman, Bradford ; Beardsley, Robert C. ; Alexander, P. Soupy ; Anderson, Steven P.The algorithm used to transform velocity signals from beam coordinates to earth coordinates in an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) relies on the assumption that the currents are uniform over the horizontal distance separating the beams. This condition may be violated by (nonlinear) internal waves, which can have wavelengths as small as 100–200 m. In this case, the standard algorithm combines velocities measured at different phases of a wave and produces horizontal velocities that increasingly differ from true velocities with distance from the ADCP. Observations made in Massachusetts Bay show that currents measured with a bottom-mounted upward-looking ADCP during periods when short-wavelength internal waves are present differ significantly from currents measured by point current meters, except very close to the instrument. These periods are flagged with high error velocities by the standard ADCP algorithm. In this paper measurements from the four spatially diverging beams and the backscatter intensity signal are used to calculate the propagation direction and celerity of the internal waves. Once this information is known, a modified beam-to-earth transformation that combines appropriately lagged beam measurements can be used to obtain current estimates in earth coordinates that compare well with pointwise measurements.
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ArticlePlankton accumulation and transport in propagating nonlinear internal fronts(Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 2007-01) Scotti, Alberto ; Pineda, JesusAccumulation and transport of plankton in fronts propagating across-shore is a process of considerable ecological importance for many inhabitants of the littoral zone, since it links the offshore larval pool with the juvenile and adult inshore habitat. Several field studies have shown that larval plankton accumulates in fronts, but have failed to give a conclusive proof that effective Lagrangian transport takes place. A few process-oriented numerical studies have lent support to the idea, but the scope of their results is limited by the two-dimensional nature of the flows considered and by the simple model used to account for the behavior of plankton. In this paper, we relax both constraints. We solve the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equation to compute the time dependent velocity field, and we use an empirically based model for the behavior of plankton. Our results show that accumulation and transport is possible, even for larvae characterized by sustained swimming speeds that are small compared with the speed of propagation of the front. We introduce a simple model to characterize the accumulation along the front, which includes both entrainment and detrainment. The model accurately represents accumulation calculated from the numerical runs, and provide a simple tool to estimate transport under a variety of circumstances. We also investigate the spatial distribution of plankton along and across the front and show that it is very patchy and dependent on the swimming speed of plankton, with important implications for interpreting results from field experiments.
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ArticleGeneration and propagation of nonlinear internal waves in Massachusetts Bay(American Geophysical Union, 2007-10-02) Scotti, Alberto ; Beardsley, Robert C. ; Butman, BradfordDuring the summer, nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) are commonly observed propagating in Massachusetts Bay. The topography of the area is unique in the sense that the generation area (over Stellwagen Bank) is only 25 km away from the shoaling area, and thus it represents an excellent natural laboratory to study the life cycle of NLIWs. To assist in the interpretation of the data collected during the 1998 Massachusetts Bay Internal Wave Experiment (MBIWE98), a fully nonlinear and nonhydrostatic model covering the generation/shoaling region was developed, to investigate the response of the system to the range of background and driving conditions observed. Simplified models were also used to elucidate the role of nonlinearity and dispersion in shaping the NLIW field. This paper concentrates on the generation process and the subsequent evolution in the basin. The model was found to reproduce well the range of propagation characteristics observed (arrival time, propagation speed, amplitude), and provided a coherent framework to interpret the observations. Comparison with a fully nonlinear hydrostatic model shows that during the generation and initial evolution of the waves as they move away from Stellwagen Bank, dispersive effects play a negligible role. Thus the problem can be well understood considering the geometry of the characteristics along which the Riemann invariants of the hydrostatic problem propagate. Dispersion plays a role only during the evolution of the undular bore in the middle of Stellwagen Basin. The consequences for modeling NLIWs within hydrostatic models are briefly discussed at the end.