5-wave interactions in inertia-gravity waves

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gururaj, Saranraj, Guha, Anirban
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Gururaj, Saranraj
Guha, Anirban
author_facet Gururaj, Saranraj
Guha, Anirban
contents In oceans, multiple energetic inertia-gravity waves often coexist in a region. In this paper, we study the stability of two coexisting plane inertia-gravity waves (hereafter, primary waves), with the same frequencies ($ω_1$) and wavevector norms, in a region of constant background stratification (denoted by $N$). Specifically, we explore the decay of two primary waves through triadic resonant instabilities (TRIs) in cases where the primary waves do not resonantly interact with each other. Two coexisting primary waves undergoing triadic resonant instability can force two secondary waves each, and this results in two 3-wave systems (3WS). In some cases, two primary waves can have a common secondary wave, and this results in a 5-wave system (5WS) composed of two different triads. We show that 5WSs are the dominant instabilities with higher growth rates than standard triads for a wide range of Coriolis frequency values ($f$). For 2D cases, 5WSs have higher growth rates than triads for $f/ω_1\gtrapprox0.3$ and for primary waves with the same horizontal (vertical) wavenumber but with opposite vertical (horizontal) wavenumber. Similar results are observed for 3D cases where the primary waves are not on the same vertical plane. Numerical simulations match the theoretical growth rates of 5WSs for a wide range of latitudes, except when $f/ω_1\approx0.5$ (critical latitude). Using theory and simulations, we show that the maximum growth rate near the critical latitude is approximately twice the maximum growth rate of all triads.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2303_14789
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle 5-wave interactions in inertia-gravity waves
Gururaj, Saranraj
Guha, Anirban
Fluid Dynamics
In oceans, multiple energetic inertia-gravity waves often coexist in a region. In this paper, we study the stability of two coexisting plane inertia-gravity waves (hereafter, primary waves), with the same frequencies ($ω_1$) and wavevector norms, in a region of constant background stratification (denoted by $N$). Specifically, we explore the decay of two primary waves through triadic resonant instabilities (TRIs) in cases where the primary waves do not resonantly interact with each other. Two coexisting primary waves undergoing triadic resonant instability can force two secondary waves each, and this results in two 3-wave systems (3WS). In some cases, two primary waves can have a common secondary wave, and this results in a 5-wave system (5WS) composed of two different triads. We show that 5WSs are the dominant instabilities with higher growth rates than standard triads for a wide range of Coriolis frequency values ($f$). For 2D cases, 5WSs have higher growth rates than triads for $f/ω_1\gtrapprox0.3$ and for primary waves with the same horizontal (vertical) wavenumber but with opposite vertical (horizontal) wavenumber. Similar results are observed for 3D cases where the primary waves are not on the same vertical plane. Numerical simulations match the theoretical growth rates of 5WSs for a wide range of latitudes, except when $f/ω_1\approx0.5$ (critical latitude). Using theory and simulations, we show that the maximum growth rate near the critical latitude is approximately twice the maximum growth rate of all triads.
title 5-wave interactions in inertia-gravity waves
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14789