Some New Aspects of the Joint Effect of Rotation and Topography on Internal Solitary Waves

Abstract

Using a recently developed asymptotic theory of internal solitary wave propagation over a sloping bottom in a rotating ocean, some new qualitative and quantitative features of this process are analyzed for internal waves in a two-layer ocean. The interplay between different singularities—terminal damping due to radiation and disappearing quadratic nonlinearity, and reaching an “internal beach” (e.g., zero lower-layer depth)—is discussed. Examples of the adiabatic evolution of a single solitary wave over a uniformly sloping bottom under realistic conditions are considered in more detail and compared with numerical solutions of the variable-coefficient, rotation-modified Korteweg–de Vries (rKdV) equation.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2019
Source ID
10.1175/jpo-d-18-0154.1

Entities

People

  • Karl Helfrich
  • Lev A. Ostrovsky

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research
  • University of Colorado Boulder
  • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Mathematics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Coastal Oceanography