Low-Frequency Reflection from a Nonmeridional Eastern Ocean Boundary and the Use of Coastal Sea Level to Monitor Eastern Pacific Equatorial Kelvin Waves

Abstract

Abstract Analytical theory and wind, sea level, and atmospheric pressure data were used to examine low-frequency dynamics near the equatorial eastern Pacific Ocean boundary. The analytical technique involves linking low-frequency solutions near a nonmeridional boundary with the deep ocean equatorial Kelvin wave for both unforced and wind-forced flows using an equatorial wave orthogonality condition. The following results were obtained. Mathematical and physical arguments show that nonmeridional boundaries should be less reflective than meridional ones, and that the poleward coastal Kelvin wave energy flux should be greater the more the boundary tilts from north to south. The eastern Pacific Ocean boundary is more nonmeridional in the Northern Hemisphere and, as a consequence, calculations for the intraseasonal, semiannual, annual, and interannual frequencies an indicated that poleward coastally trapped energy flux is greater in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere. For most frequencies ...