Abstract: | In the Boussinesq approximation, we study baroclinic topographic waves trapped by the flat meridional slope. The existence
of these waves is explained by stratification, inclined bottom, and Earth's rotation. We deduce the evolutionary equation
for the square of the envelope of a narrow-band wave packet of trapped waves. In the second order of smallness relative to
the wave amplitude, we find the mean fields of velocity and density induced by the packet. It is shown that, in the limiting
case of weakly nonlinear plane waves, the induced current is zonal. In the Northern hemisphere, depending on the slope of
the bottom γ1, the sign of the phase velocity σ/k (k is the zonal wave number) is either always positive (for γ1>γ1cr) or always negative (for γ1<γ1cr). If we neglect the vertical component of the Coriolis acceleration, then γ1cr=0.
Translated by Peter V. Malyshev and Dmitry V. Malyshev |