Observed internal tides and near-inertial waves on the continental shelf and slope off Jaigarh, central west coast of India

• Internal tides and near-inertial waves on shelf and slope off the west coast of India are detailed.
• Internal tides are highly coherent on the slope and incoherent on the shelf.
• Seasonal variations are explained by the stratification structure.

The characteristics of internal tides (ITs) and near-inertial waves (NIWs) on the continental shelf and slope off Jaigarh (17∘N), central west coast of India were studied. Eight-month (March–October) long Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measurements made in the year 2008 were used in the present study. Analysis of sea surface heights from satellite altimeter data, where the tracks of the satellites are oriented nearly in the direction of the semimajor axis of barotropic tides, reveals the presence of diurnal and semidiurnal internal tides with surface amplitudes of about 2 cm. Baroclinic current spectra of horizontal velocities show peaks in IT frequencies of M2, S2, K1 and O1 and in inertial frequency (f). The observed current spectra show higher energies than those in Garrett–Munk reference spectra by about 2–3 times. Based on the estimates of “critical topography” (where the topographic slope is equal to the slope of IT) and computed barotropic body force (Baines, 1982), the shelf-edge, mid-slope and deep part of the slope region are found to be the possible generation sites of internal tides in the region. Over the period of observation, the IT on the slope is found to be energetic, with a strong IT during March to mid-April (pre-monsoon period). Whereas, on the shelf, IT is weak during the pre-monsoon and found to be strong in the southwest monsoon. The available hydrographic data and model simulated hydrography suggest that this difference is linked with the stratification changes on the shelf and slope during these seasons, where the stratification is found to be weak on the shelf and strong on the slope during pre-monsoon. Strong low-mode NIW is observed on the shelf associated with the storm events while the NIW is found to be less energetic on the slope.