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At the change in buoyancy frequency, continuity of vertical velocity and fluid pressure givesThe background mass density is continuous, so there is no interfacial density jump or separate surface restoring force. Since $P=i\omega W^{\prime }/k^2$, these internal-wave transmission across a stratification step conditions are continuity of $W$ and $W^{\prime }$. The buoyancy perturbation need not be continuous, because the background density gradient jumps.

Let $W_0=-i\omega {\eta }_0$ and $\ell =k\sqrt{N_2^2/{\omega }^2-1}$. The lower unstratified layer obeys $W^{\prime \prime }-k^{2}W=0$ and the upper radiation condition givesPropagating these matching data downward givesThe kinematic boundary condition at the moving lower boundary therefore givesThe upper vertical-displacement complex amplitude at $H$ isIn particular, $|{\eta }_H/{\eta }_0|=[{\cosh }^2(kH)+(\ell /k{)}^2{\sinh }^2(kH){]}^{-1/2}$. The unstratified layer attenuates and phase-shifts the transmitted internal gravity wave. The matching height is $H$ in the original PDF; the TeX transcription's $H^{\prime }$ is a typo.

Take $f_0>0$ for definiteness and define $K=(k^2+l^2{)}^{1/2}>0$. Thermal-wind balance gives $U_z=-b_y/f_0=\Lambda$, and the lower boundary condition fixes $U=\Lambda z$. The basic interior quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity has no gradient, so a boundary-supported normal mode ${\psi }^{\prime }=\mathrm{Re}[\varphi (z)e^{i(kx+ly-\omega t)}]$ has zero interior potential-vorticity perturbation. Its vertical equation isDecay upward selects $\varphi =A{e}^{-{\mu }_{0}z}$.

The buoyancy perturbation is $b^{\prime }=f_0{\psi }_z^{\prime }$. At a rigid boundary $w^{\prime }=0$, linearized material conservation of buoyancy givesAt $z=0$, this is $c{\varphi }^{\prime }(0)+\Lambda \varphi (0)=0$, where $c=\omega /k$ for $k\ne 0$. The Eady edge wave therefore hasIt is an exponentially trapped boundary-buoyancy wave, not a vertically propagating interior mode. The formula for $\omega$ extends to $k=0$, where the perturbation is stationary.

For the two-region problem, absence of a density jump at the common material interface requires continuity of buoyancy:Thus its basic slope is $a=h_y=f_0({\Lambda }_1-{\Lambda }_2)/(N_1^2-N_2^2)$. For a nondegenerate stratification contrast, its variation over horizontal scale $L$ is $aL/D=O(\mathrm{Ro}/\mathrm{Bu})$, which is small in the usual quasi-geostrophic approximation with Burgers number of order one. The matching conditions can therefore be applied at the constant reference level $z=0$ to leading order. An exceptionally small stratification contrast would require checking this flat-interface ordering separately.

Pressure and normal velocity must be continuous because there is no membrane or singular interfacial force. Since base buoyancy is continuous, expanding pressure continuity at the displaced interface gives simply ${\varphi }_1(0)={\varphi }_2(0)$. The base horizontal velocity is also continuous there; call it $U_I$. Decay away from the interface then givesLinearized buoyancy conservation in each region givesMatching normal velocity gives $w_1^{\prime }=w_2^{\prime }$: the common slope correction to normal velocity cancels because pressure continuity also makes the horizontal velocity perturbation continuous. HenceThe quasi-geostrophic wave at a stratification interface has intrinsic phase velocityAs $N_1/N_2\to \infty$ with $N_2$ and the shears bounded, the lower region becomes effectively rigid andrecovering the upper-fluid Eady edge wave. The matching calculation describes regular interface-supported modes; arbitrary interior potential-vorticity initial disturbances can additionally be advected by the shear.

Now let the basic buoyancy beThermal-wind balance requires the basic along-front velocity to have vertical shear $V_z=M^2/f$, soThe basic absolute vorticity and buoyancy gradient areand hence

For the prescribed disturbance the buoyancy perturbation vanishes, so the linearized buoyancy equation and incompressibility giveThe wavevector must therefore satisfythe disturbance velocity lies along a basic isopycnal. The along-front momentum equation becomesProjecting the remaining momentum equations onto the divergence-free direction eliminates the pressure and yieldsThus this isopycnal disturbance grows if and only if $fQ<0$. Geometrically, $Q$ is the component of the absolute vorticity along the buoyancy gradient, multiplied by $|\nabla B|$; the horizontal buoyancy gradient reduces that component through the term $-M^4/f$. When $M=0$, the result reduces to the most unstable, nearly horizontal-wavevector limit of part i.

For a semi-infinite stratified fluid with thermal wind $U=\Lambda z$ above a gently sloping boundary $z=\alpha y$, a zero-interior-potential vorticity perturbation decays as $e^{-\mu z}$, where $\mu =N|k|/|f_0|$. The boundary buoyancy perturbation obeys a single oscillatory equation with phase velocity $c=(\Lambda -\alpha N^2/f_0)/\mu$. The topographic and thermal-wind contributions cancel when the boundary follows a background isopycnal.

Uniformly stratified, nonrotating, two-dimensional ideal Boussinesq equations in coordinates $(x,z)$ are equivalent to unstratified rotating equations independent of $Y$, with $(X,Y,Z)=(z,y,-x)$, rotation $2\mathbf{\Omega }=N{\mathbf{e}}_Z$, velocity $(U,V,W)=(w,\sigma /N,-u)$, and the same reduced pressure. The transverse rotating velocity represents buoyancy perturbation, while the rotation-axis velocity represents the stratified horizontal velocity. Matching prescribed forces may have components in the invariant plane, but no transverse component. Physical free surface conditions are not preserved: the physical vertical direction and its normal velocity are different under the mapping.

The three-dimensional quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity relation defines an anisotropic elliptic boundary value problem. Interior potential vorticity and boundary buoyancy perturbation $b=f_0{\psi }_z$, together with lateral and global conditions, determine the quasi-geostrophic streamfunction up to its allowed constant. If two solutions have the same data, their difference has zero elliptic source and homogeneous boundary data. Integration by parts gives zero integral of $|{\nabla }_h\psi {|}^2+(f_0^2/N^2)|{\psi }_z{|}^2$, proving uniqueness modulo a constant in a connected domain when the boundary terms vanish. Eady edge waves show that zero interior source alone is insufficient.