Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-of-atmospheres-and-oceans-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2022/6/c/solution

Use Earth's rotation rate and the Coriolis parameter . At ,
The Kelvin waves propagate polewards along the eastern boundary: northwards at N and southwards at S. The positive Rossby deformation radius uses ; the source's expression must be interpreted as a magnitude in the southern hemisphere.
The east-west e-folding distance is approximately km, or
of longitude. With the coast at and ocean at , a northern-hemisphere snapshot can be written
At a positive thickness crest, the thermocline is depressed and the alongshore velocity points polewards; a negative thickness trough reverses that velocity. In the southern hemisphere replace by in the propagation and in . The envelopes of both thickness and alongshore velocity decay offshore, and the cross-shore velocity vanishes.
Figure 1.
Eastern-boundary Kelvin-wave thickness and horizontal velocity in both hemispheres
. Details.

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