Energy pathways of the Tasman Sea internal tidal beam at three different model resolutions

With smaller horizontal grid scales, ocean models are able to resolve more of the internal wave spectrum. While the larger features may be resolved, internal wave energy typically cascades to smaller spatial scales which may remain unresolved. This energy cascade ultimately allows larger scale motions to dissipate, and is underpinned by many scale dependent processes, notably topographic scatter, interactions with non wave flows, and wave-wave interactions. We use the predominantly semidiurnal tidal beam in the Tasman Sea as a case study, and quantify the energy pathways, as well as the spatial distribution of wave dissipation of the beam under three different model resolutions. A suite of configurations are used to separate the effects of topographic scatter, as well as mean flow and eddy interactions.