2001/05/31 by Yuri V. Lvov, Esteban G. Tabak · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Environmental Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Climate variability and models #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes #math-ph #math.MP #nlin.CD #physics.ao-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.87.168501
published as Physics Review Letters, 87, 168501, (2001) · 4 pages latex file
openalex publication_date 2001/10/02 · arxiv created 2003/02/22 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Wave turbulence formalism for long internal waves in a stratified fluid is developed, based on a natural Hamiltonian description. A kinetic equation appropriate for the description of spectral energy transfer is derived, and its anisotropic self-similar stationary solution corresponding to a direct cascade of energy toward the short scales is found. This solution is very close to the high wave-number limit of the Garrett-Munk spectrum of long internal waves in the ocean. In fact, a small modification of the Garrett-Munk formalism includes a spectrum consistent with the one predicted by wave turbulence.