Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / iii / Paper 345 / 1 / b / Solution

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.