Reflection and Transmission of Internal Gravity Waves

Simulations of Isolated Wavepacket

Small amplitude, no shear (1.1MB)	Large amplitude, no shear (1.1MB)
Small amplitude, negative shear (1.2MB)	Large amplitude, negative shear (1.3MB)

Snapshots from Simulations

Snapshot only.

Snapshot only.

The images show the results of two numerical simulations of internal gravity waves which are incident from below upon a shear flow about halfway up the image. The direction of the shear is oriented so that their Doppler-shifted frequency increases as it approaches the flow. The frequency of the waves becomes so large that they partially reflect and transmit.

The evolution is very different depending upon the amplitude of the waves. The left image shows the evolution of small-amplitude waves; the right image shows the evolution of large-amplitude waves.

For more information, see a recent preprint in PDF format (read using Acrobat Reader).

Laboratory Experiments

Comparison of 2 experiments without (left) and with (right) wave tunnelling (9.1MB)	Same, but also showing superimposed density profiles (9.5MB)
Experiments performed by Kerianne Yewchuk, Dept. Math. and Stat. Sciences, U. Alberta, 2003

Department of Physics

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences