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Self-consistent effective-medium parameters for oceanic internal waves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2006

R. J. Dewitt and
Jon Wright
R. J. Dewitt
Affiliation:
Physics Department, Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia, Arkansas 71753
Jon Wright
Affiliation:
Center for Studies of Nonlinear Dynamics, La Jolla Institute, 8950 Villa La Jolla Drive, Suite 2150, La Jolla, CA 92037
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Abstract

In this paper we apply a formalism introduced in a previous paper to write down a self-consistent set of equations for the functions that describe the near-equilibrium time behaviour of random oceanic internal waves. These equations are based on the direct-interaction approximation. The self-consistent equations are solved numerically (using the Garrett-Munk spectrum as input) and the results are compared to parameters obtained in the weak-interaction approximation (WIA). The formalism points out that an extra parameter that is implicitly vanishingly small in the WIA has a significant effect on decay rates when computed self-consistently. We end by mentioning possible future self-consistent calculations that would improve upon our own.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 146 , September 1984, pp. 253 - 270
Copyright
© 1984 Cambridge University Press

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