Dynamics of the Equatorial Ocean

About this book

Dynamics of the Equatorial Ocean is the first comprehensive introduction to the theory of equatorially-confined waves and currents in the ocean. Among the topics treated are inertial and shear instabilities, wave generation by coastal reflection, semiannual and annual cycles in the tropic sea, transient equatorial waves, vertically-propagating beams, equatorial Ekman layers, the Yoshida jet model, generation of coastal Kelvin waves from equatorial waves by reflection, Rossby solitary waves, and Kelvin frontogenesis. A series of appendices on midlatitude theories for waves, jets and wave reflections add further material to assist the reader in understanding the differences between the same phenomenon in the equatorial zone versus higher latitudes.

Contents

1. An Observational Overview of the Equatorial Ocean
2. Basic Equations and Normal Modes
3. Kelvin, Yanai, Rossby and Gravity Waves
4. The "Long Wave" Approximation & Geostrophy
5. Coastally Trapped Waves and Ray- Tracing
6. Reflections and Boundaries
7. Response of the Equatorial Ocean to Periodic Forcing
8. Impulsive Forcing and Spin-up
9. Yoshida Jet and Theories of the Undercurrent
10. Stratified Models of Mean Currents
11. Waves and Beams in the Continuously Stratified Ocean
12. Stable Waves in Shear
13. Inertial Instability and Deep Equatorial Jets
14. Kelvin Wave Instability
15. Nonmodal Instability
16. Nonlinear Equatorial Waves
17. Nonlinear Wavepackets and Nonlinear Schroedinger Equation

A. Hermite Functions
B. Expansion of the Wind-Driven Flow in Vertical Modes
C. Potential Vorticity and Y

Glossary
Index
References

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