Continental Shelf Waves 



Table 3 

 Observed and Theoretical Lowest- Mode Wave Speeds 



of the observed speed. For the east coast, however, a considerable discrepancy 

 still exists between the observed and theoretical wave speeds. 



EFFECT OF DEEP-SEA CURRENT 

 AND STRATIFICATION 



The two outstanding phenomena which have not been considered in this the- 

 ory are the East Australian Current (6) and the associated deep-sea stratifica- 

 tion (7). To gain a rudimentary understanding of the interaction processes which 

 exist between the shelf waves and these two phenomena, we obtain the unforced 

 solution for the simple two- layer model depicted in Fig. 6. If we assume the 

 basic current to be geostrophic and baroclinic, then the interface must slope 

 downward as we proceed away from the coast. However, in the equations for the 

 wave heights rj and {, ' , we make the simplifying approximation that the depths 

 of the upper and lower layers are constant. 



In terms of the notation shown in Fig. 5 we assume the following forms for 



(t?,u, v) and (^' ,u' , v' ): 



^ "N y- •>. 



N(x) 

 X(x) 

 Y(x) 

 r Z'(x) 



X'(x) 

 Y'(x)J 



>- exp[i(ky - wt)] 



(28) 



Then, for co^ « f^ 



p « 1, a2 = fVk^i 



conservation equations give 



2 « f2 (a.„ = a, + kYg ), k^ V « 1, f^^^ « gj ^ ^^ = (^p' - p)/ 



- 0(1), and a' 2 = f2/k2g'Do = 0(1) (g' = g(i-p/p')), the 



491 



