Internal Waves in the General Oceanic Circulation

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Internal waves propagate in the volume of the ocean, and are influenced by density variations, as well as the Earth’s rotation. When they break, they mix and move water up from the cold abyss, and heat down from the sun-bathed surface. When forced by wind, internal waves are very active in the upper ocean, participate in direct atmosphere-ocean exchanges, and might extract energy out of the large-scale vortices that contain the majority of the ocean’s kinetic energy. These vortices are called geostrophic and are characterized by a balance between pressure gradients and the Coriolis force.