Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The
definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 32 (2005): L10602, doi:10.1029/2005GL022834.
Description:
Ocean surface gravity waves with periods between 20 and 200 s were observed
to reflect from a steep-walled submarine canyon. Observations of pressure
and velocity on each side of the canyon were decomposed into incident
waves arriving from distant sources, waves reflected by the canyon, and waves
transmitted across the canyon. The observed reflection is consistent with longwave
theory, and distinguishes between cases of normal and oblique angles
of incidence. As much as 60% of the energy of waves approaching the canyon
normal to its axis was reflected, except for waves twice as long as the canyon
width, which were transmitted across with no reflection. Although waves approaching
the canyon at oblique angles cannot propagate over the canyon,
total reflection was observed only at frequencies higher than 20 mHz, with
lower frequency energy partially transmitted across, analogous to the quantum
tunneling of a free particle through a classically impenetrable barrier.
Description:
Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation.
Keywords:
Wave reflection
;
Infragravity
;
Submarine canyon
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
Format:
text/plain
Format:
application/postscript
Format:
application/x-tex
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