Fig. Schematic of the near-slope energy cascade during generation of internal waves at sloping topography of angle β. Here, Cp denotes phase velocity and Cg denotes group velocity.
As part of the baroclinic response to an oscillating flow over sloping topography shown schematically in figure 1, energy propagates out as internal waves while some energy is locally confined as trapped internal wave motion and a bottom boundary layer. The locally confined energy may cascade to small-scale turbulence owing to nonlinear effects that can be especially large when the slope angle is near the critical value. The propagating internal waves can also break down to turbulence at sites. remote from the generation region through a variety of mechanisms including reflection at a topographic slope with critical angle.