The M2 tide in the Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

The mathematical simulation of tidal oscillations in basins like the Gulf of Mexico becomes interesting for several reasons. One of them is the tidal driving, shared between two fundamentally different mechanisms: 1) the direct action of the gravitational forces over the Atlantic Ocean along the boundary sections. The other is the frictional impediment of tidal circulation along extensive shoals. These nonlinear processes give origin to interaction of different frequencies resulting into detectable tidal overtones that in some way are a measure of tidal energy dissipation. In the present paper, tidal topography of the Gulf of Mexico has been computed for the tidal constituent (lunar semi-diurnal) bye a time-stepping technique that includes both driving mechanisms and does not require neglecting monlinear terms. The predicted tidal constants are compared to the available observation.