In 2D and 3D model runs I explore dissipation and mixing near the ridges in Luzon Strait. The dissipation at the ridges is greatly affected by the baroclinic wave fields generated at the other ridges. This is explained in this article. After you click on the figure to the right, a movie will show the zonal barotropic currents at the East Ridge (top panel), and zonal currents (middle panel) and eddy viscosity (bottom panel) at the West Ridge for half a diurnal spring tidal cycle. The eddy viscosity in the overturns is computed using Thorpe sorting (Klymak et al 2010). The eastward barotropic flow causes a large lee wave with overturns and upslope propagating bores. A manuscript is in preparation for the 2D runs. 3D runs will follow.

Previously, I worked with Jim McWilliams at the department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences UC Los Angeles. At UCLA I analyzed ROMS model data to study internal tides in the Southern California Bight and I applied ROMS to study nonlinear internal tides in the South China Sea (SCS). There are few observations of internal tides in the interior of the Southern California Bight. The application of the high-resolution ROMS reveals a, previously unknown, semidiurnal first-mode CW rotating Poincare wave with fluxes of 5 KW/m in the 2000-m deep Santa Cruz basin (location A in the figure below; the arrows in the basin have a different scale than outside the basin). The fluxes are strongly modulated by the spring-neap cycle. The model shows hot spots of mixing in the basin that warrant further research. Outside this deep basin the fluxes are weaker and more affected by non-tidal forces, e.g. eddies. A manuscript is in press with the J. Phys. Oceanogr (see publications). In the thesis of Carmen Hill Lindsay, a master student, is a nice model-data comparison of internal tides in the bight.



At UCLA my South China Sea research has focused "On the generation and evolution of nonlinear internal waves in the South China Sea". The paper describes the generation and evolution of internal waves in the SCS due to asymmetric modulated tidal forcing. In a subsequent article I analyze the east-west asymmetry in solitons from Luzon Strait due to bathymetry, modulated tides and the Kuroshio. The figure below shows baroclinic along channel velocity and some isotherms. Smaller solitons occur to the east of the ridge due to thermocline deepening and a deeper ocean of 5750 m.

Buijsman,M.C., Legg, S., and Klymak, J. Double ridge internal tideinterference and its effect on dissipation in Luzon Strait. Accepted for publication in J. Phys. Oceanogr.

Buijsman,M.C., Uchiyama, Y., McWilliams, J.C., and Hill-Lindsay, C.R., 2012. Modeling semidiurnal internal tide variability in the SouthernCalifornia Bight. J. Phys. Oceanogr, 42, 62-77.

Buijsman, M. C., J. C. McWilliams, and C. R. Jackson, 2010. East-west asymmetry in nonlinear internal waves from Luzon Strait, J. Geophys. Res., 115, C10057, doi:10.1029/2009JC006004.

Buijsman, M. C., Y. Kanarska, and J. C. McWilliams, 2010. On the generation and evolution of nonlinear internal waves in the South China Sea, J. Geophys. Res., 115, C02012, doi:10.1029/2009JC005275.

Kaminsky G.M., Ruggiero P, Buijsman M.C., McCandless D., Gelfenbaum G., 2010. 
Historical evolution of the Columbia River littoral cell, Mar. Geol. 273, 96-126