Long-period Topographic Trapped Waves in

a Two-layer Ocean with Basic Flow

Abstract

The characteristics of free topographic trapped waves are investigated numerically for a two-layer model with basic flow, which is uniform, geostrophically balanced motion flowing parallel to the coast. Six modes are identified for this model with depth variations. They are external and internal Kelvin modes, a topographic Rossby mode, and additional three modes. The two of the additional modes are interesting. The first one is a quasigeostrophic surface-trapped mode, while the second one is a quasi-geostrophic bottom-trapped mode. It is suggested that baroclinic instability takes place when these two modes take a resonance coupling each other.