 Turning level of a stationary internal wave

A vertically propagating stationary topographic internal gravity wave meets a turning level when its squared vertical wavenumber changes from positive to negative. The stationary internal-wave WKB solution then fails locally. A simple zero is resolved by an Airy function transition connecting incident and reflected waves below to a decaying evanescent wave above. For negligible wind curvature the condition is $|kU(z_t)|=N(z_t)$, distinct from the zero-intrinsic-frequency critical layer in a shear flow.