Baroclinic and barotropic instabilities of coastal currents.

Abstract

The two-layer baroclinic instability model of the California Undercurrent from Mysak is modified to investigate the effects of the lateral boundary conditions on the stability properties of the system. Two models are presented. In the first the effect of replacing the rigid outer boundary with a quiescent, constant-depth ocean is considered, and then in the second the rigid outer boundary is retained but the inner boundary is replaced by a shallow sloping region. For both models, a parameter study is presented to determine the effects of varying the shear, stratification and bottom slope. (from authors abstract)