Vertical heat and salt fluxes induced by inertia-gravity internal waves on sea shelf

Free inertia-gravity internal waves are considered in a two-dimensional vertically nonuniform flow in the Boussinesq approximation. The equation for vertical velocity amplitude includes complex factors caused by the gradient of the flow velocity component transverse to the wave-propagation direction; therefore, the eigenfunction and wave frequency are complex. It is shown that the decrement of damping (imaginary correction to the frequency) of 15-min internal waves is two orders of magnitude smaller than the wave frequency; i.e., the waves weakly damp. Vertical wave fluxes of heat and salt are nonzero due to the phase shift between fluctuations of the vertical velocity and temperature (salinity) different from π 2. The vertical component of the Stokes drift speed is also nonzero and contributed into the vertical transport.