Generation of Mesoscale Variability by Resonant Interaction between a Baroclinic Current and Localized Topography

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Abstract The resonant interaction of a longshore baroclinic current with a topographic feature is investigated, using a quasi-geostrophic two-layer model, where the lower layer is assumed to be deep but is not stagnant. In this model the current may be baroclinically unstable. When a long-wave phase speed is close to zero (in a fixed reference frame), which is found to be realized when the current has almost zero velocity at the coast, there is an enhanced generation of mesoscale variability due to a combination of resonant topographic forcing and baroclinic instability. A forced evolution equation of the KdV-type, which includes an additional coupling term with the lower-layer equation, describes the behavior of the upper layer. On the other hand, the lower-layer motion is governed by a linear vorticity equation, which in turn is coupled to the upper-layer equation. A stability analysis shows that a solitary wave is unstable when a parameter Γ (the phase speed in the absence of any coupling between the t...