Instability caused by the coalescence of two modes of a one-layer coastal current with a surface front

Stability of a one-layer density-driven coastal current with a surface front whose potential vorticity is uniformly zero is examined, and it is shown that such a current can be unstable if the stability condition derived by Paldor (1983) is not satisfied,i.e., the current width,L, is larger than 2/3U/f, wheref is the Coriolis parameter andU is the current velocity at the front. This instability is caused by the coalescence of a frontal trapped and coastal trapped waves. The energetics of this instability and the effect of potential vorticity gradient are also discussed.