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The central stratified layer supports upward and downward internal gravity waves, whose counterpropagating components form a standing wave. The unstratified regions support evanescent waves, and the upper disturbance decays as $e^{-k(z-2H)}$. Consequently the central layer is a stratified internal-wave guide, rather than a source of propagating energy at infinity.

The largest response occurs at its trapped normal mode frequencies. They can be specified without solving the forced problem. Set the boundary forcing to zero to find a free normal mode. The lower solution is proportional to $\sinh (kz)$, so continuity of fluid pressure and vertical velocity givesIn the central layer writeThe upper Robin boundary condition then gives the exact trapped-mode conditionThe left side increases strictly from zero to infinity, so there is one positive root for each $n$; the frequencies accumulate at zero. This is constructive phase matching after reflection at both ends. The phase shifts from the evanescent waves matter: simply imposing integer half-wavelengths across the stratified layer is generally incorrect.

In the ideal inviscid model, exact resonant forcing has no bounded steady harmonic solution. The undamped normal mode grows secularly under sustained forcing. Weak viscosity or other losses would produce large finite peaks near the displayed frequencies; the linear approximation eventually fails if the disturbance becomes too large.

The illustrated free normal mode has an oscillatory central region and evanescent wave tails. Its lower tail reaches the fixed zero-displacement boundary; its upper tail decays to infinity.

Take $U_0,N_0,k>0$ and assume an initially propagating mode, $k<N_0/U_0$. Put $s=N_0/U_0$ and $\delta (z)=1+\gamma z$. Neglecting $U^{\prime \prime }/U$ as stipulated, the Scorer parameter and stationary internal-wave WKB solution areThe positive root $m>0$ selects upward group velocity for the negative intrinsic frequency branch $\hat{\omega }=-kU$. The WKB approximation needs a slowly varying background relative to the local vertical wavelength, in particular $|m^{\prime }|\ll m^2$ and $|m^{\prime \prime }|\ll |m{|}^3$, away from a turning level or singular mean profile.

The local dispersion relation is $\omega =kU-Nk/(k^2+m^2{)}^{1/2}=0$. Its intrinsic and laboratory group velocities are, with $K=(k^2+m^2{)}^{1/2}$,Thus intrinsic energy propagation is upstream and upward, while laboratory energy propagation is downstream and upward, parallel to $(k,m)$. Constant-phase lines of an internal gravity wave have slope $dz/dx=-k/m$ and normal spacing $2\pi /K$; the horizontal spacing remains $2\pi /k$.

If $\gamma <0$, $m$ grows with height. The wavevector and laboratory energy ray become more vertical; phase lines become flatter and closer together. For finite nonzero $N$, the heightis a critical level of an internal gravity wave: $U\to 0$ and the vertical wavenumber diverges. The laboratory group velocity tends to zero. Importantly, $|m^{\prime }|/m^2\to |\gamma |/s$, so the formal WKB condition need not deteriorate before this level if that ratio is small. Nevertheless the stationary equation is singular at the level, the phase has no finite limit, and the horizontal perturbation velocity grows as $m^{1/2}$; the inviscid linear wave cannot be continued uniformly through it without additional physics.

If $\gamma >0$, $m$ decreases to zero atThe wavevector and laboratory ray become horizontal, the phase lines become vertical, and the normal spacing increases. Above $z_t$, $m^2<0$ and the disturbance is an evanescent wave. Here $|m^{\prime }|/m^2$ diverges, so the WKB approximation fails in a turning region and must be replaced by a local connection solution.

A real transmitted normal wavenumber exists only ifso the critical angle for total internal reflection isFor ${\theta }_I>{\theta }_I^{\mathrm{cr}}$, putFor incident amplitude $E_0\hat{\mathbf{y}}$, the transverse-electric Fresnel reflection coefficient and transmission coefficient areA boundary-matched solution iswith each magnetic component obtained from ${\mathbf{B}}_X={\mathbf{k}}_X\times {\mathbf{E}}_X/\omega$, now using the complex transmitted wavevector $(i\kappa ,0,k_z)$. Since $|r|=1$, the wave undergoes total internal reflection; the transmitted field is an evanescent wave that propagates parallel to the interface and decays exponentially into $x>0$.

The reflected P-wave is propagating only while its normal wavenumber is real, equivalently while $|\sin \varphi |\le 1$. Sinceit is evanescent whenPutThen its spatial factor iswhich decays as $z\to -\infty$. The reflected SV amplitude becomesThe numerator and denominator have equal complex modulus, soThus evanescent mode conversion changes the reflected SV phase but not its amplitude, as described by Unit-modulus SV reflection with evanescent P conversion.

A stratified layer between unstratified regions can trap internal gravity waves, because the exterior disturbance is an evanescent wave. Its discrete normal modes obey Robin boundary conditions representing the exterior layers. Periodic boundary forcing at a trapped normal mode frequency produces resonance in the ideal undamped model.

For constant buoyancy frequency $N$ and $U=U_0+Sz$ with $S>0$, a stationary component of horizontal wavenumber $k$ turns at $z_t=(N/k-U_0)/S$ if it propagates at the source. Its vertical wavenumber vanishes there; WKB approximation fails and an Airy function transition connects reflection to an upper evanescent wave.