Focusing power of internal-wave reflection 2026-09-28
For an internal gravity wave ray at angle to the horizontal reflecting from a slope at angle , conservation of tangential wavenumber givesAt a subcritical internal-wave reflection, : the reflected wavelength shortens and its wavelength-averaged energy density increases by .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 345 1 d Solution 2026-09-28
Setwhere is the magnitude of the internal-wave ray slope and is the bottom slope. A rightward ray remains in the triangular basin precisely when its bottom reflection is subcritical internal-wave reflection, namely . Therefore
Conservation of frequency and of the component of the wavevector tangent to the slope gives the focusing power of internal-wave reflectionwhere . In this range , so the reflected wavelength is shorter by the factor . The reflected normal group velocity is smaller by ; conservation of normal energy flux therefore increases the wavelength-averaged energy density by
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 345 2 c i Solution 2026-09-28
Take without loss of generality, putand write the incident field as the imaginary part of . The kinematic boundary condition on isFor a flat boundary the reflected wave is . Expanding the boundary condition in a Taylor expansion about creates the topographic sidebands of an internal gravity wave. With upward-radiating vertical wavenumber , their complex amplitudes through second order areThus the general compact result isFor the convenient nondegenerate case , all displayed sideband wavenumbers are positive. Defining , the same answer is the explicitly real formulaValidity requires a linear incident wave, an inviscid uniformly stratified bulk, an outgoing-radiation condition, strict separation from critical slopes, and small boundary excursions for every retained mode, in particular and . A vanishing is a degenerate zero-horizontal-wavenumber case and must be treated by taking the corresponding zero-amplitude limit rather than dividing by .