A note on the temporal and spatial attenuation of ocean waves

Abstract

We study attenuation of free waves in the homogeneous ocean. Using the Cauchy–Riemann relations and then energy equation, we derive a novel equation that relates temporal and spatial decay to the energy dissipation in the fluid. In particular, for spatially damped waves we find that the attenuation coefficient is inversely proportional to the group velocity. We discuss the consequences of this for continental shelf waves where the group velocity may tend to zero in wave number space, and hence the spatial attenuation coefficient may become infinitely large. We show that generally for a travelling wave solution, the spatial damping will remain unchanged in a frame of reference moving with the group velocity, revealing the different physics behind temporal wave damping and spatial wave damping.