Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T06:39:16.731Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Internal gravity waves in a time-varying stratification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2006

Richard Rotunno
Richard Rotunno
Affiliation:
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Program, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Present address: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado 80307.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The influence of slow time variations of the Brun-Väisälä frequency N upon the energy of internal gravity waves is investigated. It is found that, when time variations in N are produced by a mean deformation field (reversible mean state), the wave energy can vary in either direct or inverse proportion, depending on the wavenumber orientation. When N changes owing to a certain type of irreversible process, the wave energy varies with only inverse proportionality.

The nocturnal planetary boundary layer (NPBL) provides an example where N = N(z, t). The full initial/boundary-value problem for an N(z, t) similar to the climatological mean for the NPBL is solved.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 82 , Issue 4 , 14 October 1977 , pp. 609 - 619
Copyright
© 1977 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Batchelor, G. K. 1953 The conditions for dynamic similarity of motions of a frictionless perfect gas atmosphere. Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 73, 224–235.Google Scholar
Blackadar, A. K. 1957 Boundary layer wind maxima and their significance for the growth of nocturnal inversions. Bull. Am. Met. Soc. 38, 283–290.Google Scholar
Bretherton, F. P. & Garrett, C. J. R. 1968 Wavetrains in inhomogeneous moving media. Proc. Roy. Soc. A 302, 529–554.Google Scholar
Clarke, R. H., Dyer, A. J., Brook, R. R., Reid, D. G. & Troup, A. J. 1971 The Wangara Experiment: boundary-layer data. Div. Met. Phys., CSIRO, Australia, Tech. Paper no. 19.Google Scholar
Garrett, C. J. R. 1968 On the interaction between internal gravity waves and a shear flow. J. Fluid Mech. 34, 711–720.Google Scholar
Mcewak, A. D. & Robinson, R. M. 1975 Parametric instability of internal gravity waves. J. Fluid Mech. 67, 667–688.Google Scholar
Orlanski, I. 1973 The trapeze instability as a source of internal gravity waves. Part I. J. Atmos. Sci. 30, 1007–1016.Google Scholar
Whitham, G. B. 1975 Linear and Non-Linear Waves. Interscience.Google Scholar