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gfdl's home page > gfdl on-line bibliography > 1977: Journal of Marine Research, 35(3), 509-523
The effects of coastal geometry on equatorial waves (forced waves in the Gulf of Guinea)
| Philander, S. G. H., 1977: The effects of coastal geometry on equatorial waves (forced waves in the Gulf of Guinea). Journal of Marine Research, 35(3), 509-523. |
| Abstract: The response of a stratified, semi-infinite equatorial ocean, bounded by a zonal coast close to the equator, to forcing at a given frequency and zonal wavenumber, is considered. If the coast is distant from the equator, the vertically propagating waves that are excited could include an infinite set of inertia-gravity waves, a finite set of Rossby waves, a Rossby-gravity wave and a coastally or equatorially trapped Kelvin wave. If the coast is close to the equator all these waves are modified except the equatorially trapped Kelvin wave. Most severely affected by the coast are the coastally trapped Kelvin wave and the equatorially trapped mixed Rossby-gravity wave. On a dispersion diagram the lines corresponding to the latter two waves are deformed so as to give rise to a Kelvin-gravity and a Rossby-Kelvin mode, each with a point at which the zonal component of the group velocity vanishes. The modification of these waves is most severe in the neighborhood of this point, particularly for small vertical wavenumbers.. Examples of waves that have been, or are likely to be observed in the Gulf of Guinea (where there is a nearly zonal coast to the equator) are discussed. |