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Massachusetts Bay - Internal wave packets digitized from SAR imagery

Published by National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: May 10, 2026 at 03:34 AM | Dataset Last Updated: January 01, 2006 at 12:00 AM
This feature class contains internal wave packets digitized from SAR imagery at 1:350,000 scale in Massachusetts Bay. Internal waves are nonsinusoidal waves that occur at the interface between two layers of ocean water of differing densities (Brown et al., 1989 p.9). They occur when seasonally stratified water is forced by diurnal tides over abrupt topographic features, such as banks or ledges. These processes often produce several internal waves at once and as a result, internal waves usually propagate horizontally in groups or packets. As these packets approach shallow water (typically 25 to 40 m in depth), they gradually disappear due to increasing bottom attenuation, disrupting the pycnocline and vertically mixing water of differing densities (Jackson and Apel, 2004 p.198).

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