The high-resolution vertical structure of internal tides and near-inertial waves measured with an ADCP over the continental slope in the Bay of Biscay

ADCP measurements of the velocity structure in the permanent thermocline at two locations over the continental slope in the Bay of Biscay are presented. The vertical variation of the contribution of the inertia-gravity waveband to the kinetic energy, vertical motion, and current shear are analysed. The semi-diurnal tides together with near-inertial waves appear to provide over 70% of the high-frequency kinetic energy (>1/3 cpd). Over the vertical range of the ADCP observations the phase of the harmonic M2 tide changes up to 155°, while the kinetic energy varies in the vertical by a factor of 3.8, showing the importance of the contribution of internal waves to the observed tidal motion. Both semi-diurnal internal tidal waves and near-inertial waves have a vertically restricted distribution of the variance of the horizontal and vertical velocity, as in internal wave beams. The short-term 14-day averaged amplitude and phase lag of the M2 tide shows large temporal changes, with a characteristic 40–45 day time scale. These changes are probably related to variations in generation sites and propagation paths of the internal tide, because of changes in the temperature and salinity stratification due to the presence of meso-scale eddies. The relatively large shear in the inertia-gravity wave band, mainly at near-inertial frequencies, supports low-gradient Richardson numbers that are well below 1 for nearly half of the time. This implies that the large shear may support turbulent mixing for a large part of the time.