A search for evidence of critical internal wave reflection on the continental rise and slope off Nova Scotia

According to linear inviscid theory, the reflection of internal waves off a uniformly sloping bottom should lead to greatly enhanced energy density, and a cross‐isobath alignment of motions, near the critical frequency ωc for which the wave ray slope equals the bottom slope. Current‐meter data from the continental rise and slope off Nova Scotia are used to test this hypothesis. Near‐bottom energy enhancement at ωc was found to be significant at the 95% level for 8 out of 30 tests performed, whereas cross‐isobath alignment of motions near ωc was significant at the 95% level for 10 out of 15 tests performed. Some aspects of the observations that appear to be consistent with non‐linear reflection theory are briefly discussed.