Spontaneous generation and impact of inertia-gravity waves in a stratified, two-layer shear flow

Williams, P. D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9713-9820 (2003) Spontaneous generation and impact of inertia-gravity waves in a stratified, two-layer shear flow. Geophysical Research Letters, 30 (24). 2255. ISSN 0094-8276 doi: 10.1029/2003GL018498

Abstract/Summary

Inertia-gravity waves exist ubiquitously throughout the stratified parts of the atmosphere and ocean. They are generated by local velocity shears, interactions with topography, and as geostrophic (or spontaneous) adjustment radiation. Relatively little is known about the details of their interaction with the large-scale flow, however. We report on a joint model/laboratory study of a flow in which inertia-gravity waves are generated as spontaneous adjustment radiation by an evolving large-scale mode. We show that their subsequent impact upon the large-scale dynamics is generally small. However, near a potential transition from one large-scale mode to another, in a flow which is simultaneously baroclinically-unstable to more than one mode, the inertia-gravity waves may strongly influence the selection of the mode which actually occurs.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/1923
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	Mathematical Geophysics: Modeling; Nonlinear dynamics; Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Planetary meteorology
Publisher	American Geophysical Union
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