Internal tide energy fluxes from real-time HYCOM simulations

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The IWR HYCOM Team uses real-time realistically forced global ocean HYCOM simulations with Data Assimilation (DA) to compute semidiurnal-band monthly-mean energy fluxes for modes 1-3 in the vicinity of the IWR array (white dots) at the US Westcoast. The HYCOM simulation has a horizontal resolution of 4 km, is forced with 3-hourly wind and tides, and assimilates observations to enhance accuracy. The fluxes are computed for every month since March 2023 and display significant time variability. The southward propagating internal tides originate from the Mendocino Escarpment, while the eastward propagating internal tides likely originate from remote sources such as Hawaii. One objective of this project is to validate the HYCOM simulations with the IWR mooring observations.