Abstract
For motions whose time scales are of the order of a day or greater, or more precisely when the frequency of the wave motion is of the order of the Coriolis parameter or less, the effects of the Earth’s rotation can no longer be ignored. Such waves are evident in both oceanic and atmospheric observational spectra. Figure 11.1 taken from the article of Garrett and Munk (1979) shows a power spectrum of vertical displacement of an isotherm. We see a great deal of variance at frequencies less than N (as we might expect) with a peak near the Coriolis frequency f= 2Ω; sin θ.
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References
Cairns JL, Williams GO (1976) Internal wave observations from a midwater float, 2. J Geophys Res 81:1943–1950
Garrett C, Munk W (1979) Internal waves in the ocean. Annu Rev Fluid Mech 11:339–369
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Pedlosky, J. (2003). Rotation and Potential Vorticity. In: Waves in the Ocean and Atmosphere. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05131-3_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05131-3_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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