Some aspects of internal wave motions

Summary Internal waves are considered on the hypotheses of small disturbances and the Boussinesq approximation. Consideration is given to the lowest internal mode propagating along athin thermocline, and an approximate calculation is made of the dispersion relation, including an explicit representation of the dominant correction for thermocline thickness. Then, the Stokes drift velocity is calculated (a) approximately for this mode in the thin-thermocline model, and (b) numerically for the first two internal modes associated with a single thick thermocline. Finally, a calculation is made of the mass transport velocity field induced by the interaction between pairs of waves (surface or internal), having thesame frequency but arbitrary directions of propagation.