Several methods are developed for analyzing data containing a highly variable internal tide. In particular, the methods are aimed at the analysis of moored observations with relatively few measurements in the vertical. The analysis depends upon an ''elliptical decomposition'' that is a generalization of the familiar ''rotary decomposition.'' The technique is applied to velocity and temperature observations in the upper ocean made during the Mixed Layer Dynamics Experiment (MILDEX) in the northeast Pacific Ocean, about 700 km west of Santa Barbara, California, during October--November 1983. The observed propagation direction and amplitude of the internal tide was highly variable in time. It was anticipated that the wave could be propagating from the continental shelf where it is presumed to be generated. However, most of the time the internal tide appears to be propagating parallel to the coast. This result suggests the importance of density and velocity structure at mesoscale and frontal scale in affecting the propagation of the internal tide. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1989