Saturation of the Internal Tide over the Inner Continental Shelf. Part II: Parameterization

Broadly distributed measurements of velocity, density, and turbulence spanning the inner shelf off central California indicate that (i) the average shoreward-directed internal tide energy flux < F-E > decreases to near 0 at the 25-m isobath; (ii) the vertically integrated turbulence dissipation rate hDi is approximately equal to the flux divergence of internal tide energy partial derivative(x) < F-E >; (iii) the ratio of turbulence energy dissipation in the interior relative to the bottom boundary layer (BBL) decreases toward shallow waters; (iv) going inshore, < F-E > becomes decorrelated with the incoming internal wave energy flux; and (v) < F-E > becomes increasingly correlated with stratification toward shallower water.