For an axisymmetric vertical mode of a shearing sheet in this Boussinesq approximation, the perturbations have no horizontal gradients, so background-shear advection vanishes. The linear Coriolis acceleration and perturbation advection of the background shear give
while thermal conduction and incompressibility give
Here is the thermal diffusion rate of a Fourier mode, not the cooling exponent in Question 2. Since , incompressibility forces , and the vertical momentum equation then forces for this nonzero-wavenumber amplitude.
The three remaining amplitudes satisfy
A nontrivial solution requires the determinant to vanish, giving the convective overstability dispersion relation
No division by or was needed, so the thermal energy mode of a shearing sheet is retained. The notation denotes a signed buoyancy frequency squared and can be negative for an adverse stratification; it must not be restricted to the square of a real positive frequency.