What is the near-inertial band and why is it different from the rest of the
internal wave continuum?
Proceedings of the Eleventh `Aha Huliko'a Hawaiian Winter Workshop, 215-221, 1999.
The "near-inertial" part of the internal wave continuum is both dominant and different.
A simple, possible reason for the difference is that waves generated at the surface
are not reflected or scattered from the sea floor until they have propagated equatorward
to a latitude where there frequency exceeds the local inertial frequency. This excess
is easily estimated and is of order 10% of f at mid-latitudes. The estimate is in
reasonable agreement with data on the depth-dependent peak frequency and on the
frequency band within which there is little upward propagating energy, suggesting
that an increased research emphasis on the near-inertial band is warranted.
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