In T-TIDE, we have identified a region of the ocean where we can watch the breaking process.  Strong conversion at the Macquarie Ridge south of New Zealand rocket across the Tasman sea at 6 knots, where they must break on the Tasmanian continental slope.  

OR, on the other hand, do the internal tides reflect back into the open sea?

Both models and altimetry show the incoming radiation is strong, and our models of the breaking show that the turbulence should be quite intense.  So we have been notified by NSF that we will be funded to heavily instrument the Tasmanian continental slope with a range of tools including our moored profilers, Nash's chi-pods, Rob Pinkel's fast CTD, and gliders.  We hope that the result will be a much better understanding of the processes, and the strength and distribution of the mixing.

Led by Rob Pinkel (SIO), TTIDE is a collaboration between researchers at SIO, OSU, UAF and UVic.