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arXiv · 1503.00551

On the concentration of near-inertial waves in anticyclones

Eric Danioux·Jacques Vanneste·Oliver Bühler
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Abstract

An overlooked conservation law for near-inertial waves propagating in a steady background flow provides a new perspective on the concentration of these waves in regions of anticyclonic vorticity. The conservation law implies that this concentration is a direct consequence of the decrease in spatial scales experienced by an initially homogeneous wave field. Scaling arguments and numerical simulations of a reduced-gravity model of mixed-layer near-inertial waves confirm this interpretation and elucidate the influence of the strength of the background flow relative to the dispersion.

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Eric Danioux, Jacques Vanneste, Oliver Bühler. 2015-03-02. On the concentration of near-inertial waves in anticyclones. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2015.252

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