Edge‐, bottom‐, and Rossby waves in a rotating stratified fluid

Abstract It is found that in a rotating stratified fluid bounded by a single rigid wall, edge waves may occur at all frequencies less than or equal to N sin a (a is the angle of the wall from the horizontal and N the Brunt‐Vaisala frequency). These decay exponentially away from the boundary, in a distance of O(S) wavelengths, for α = O(1), or O(S ‐1) wavelengths, for αS ≤ O(1), where S is the ratio of N to the Coriolis parameter f, taken for illustration to be large. The phase and energy both move with a component to the left, facing shallow water. The waves could, for example, appear as an internal tide at the continental rise or as baroclinic meandering of currents over a slope. The low‐frequency limit, αS ≪ 1, is studied in detail. To allow for large scales of motion other rigid boundaries and variations in f are included. The edge (actually “bottom") waves then merge with topographic‐planetary waves as the wavelengths increase; the familiar depth‐independent mode is found to be possible in the sea for wavelengths exceeding about 450 km. The ß‐effect introduces modes complementary to that trapped at the bottom, which instead are isolated from it.