A unified linear theory of wavelike perturbations under general ocean conditions

Abstract

A linearized instability analysis model with five unknowns was proposed to describe disturbance motions under general oceanic background conditions, including large-scale current shear, density stratification, frontal zone, and arbitrary topography. A unified linear theory of wavelike perturbations for surface gravity waves, internal gravity waves and inertial gravity waves was derived for the adiabatic case, and the solution was then found using Fourier integrals. In this theory, we discarded the assumptions widely accepted in the literature concerning derivations of wave motions such as the irrotationality assumption for surface gravity waves, the rigid-lid approximation for internal gravity waves, and the long-wave approximation for inertial gravity waves. Analytical solutions based on this theory indicate that the complex dispersion relationships between frequency and wave-number describing the propagation and development of the three types of wavelike perturbation motions include three components: complex dispersion relationships at the sea surface; vertical invariance of the complex frequency; and expressions of the vertical wave-number (phase). Classical results of both surface waves and internal waves were reproduced from the unified theory under idealized conditions. The unified wave theory can be applied in the dynamical explanation of the generation and propagation properties of internal waves that are visible in the satellite SAR images in the southern part of the China Seas. It can also serve as the theoretical basis for both a numerical internal-wave model and analytical estimation of the ocean fluxes transported by wavelike perturbations.