Utrecht summer school Physics of the climate system

August 15-26, 2016

Rossby and Kelvin waves

Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht

Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Anna von der Heydt Phone: +31-30-2535963
fax: +31-30-2543163
e-mail: a.s.vonderheydt@uu.nl

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Contents
1 Introduction 2

2 Overview of wave types 2

3 Analytical preparations 3
3.1 The linearized shallow water equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2 The reduced gravity model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.3 Streamfunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

4 The Rossby wave 7

4.1 Structure and propagation characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2 The propagation mechanism of Rossby waves . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5 The Kelvin wave 13

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1 Introduction
In this lecture we will study waves in geophysical fluids. Waves are of great im-
portance in atmospheric and oceanic flows, they transport information through
the earth system in the fasted possible way. First, an overview of the various
wave types is given. Second, the governing equations of so-called Rossby and
Kelvin waves are derived. To this end, the shallow-water equations are linearized
and analytical solutions are found. In their linearized form, the equations still
represent the main behavior of these wave types. We restrict ourselves to Rossby
and Kelvin waves here as the large-scale atmospheric and oceanic disturbances
mostly generate these types of waves. Gravity waves and intertial gravity waves
may play a role as well, but for practical reasons we leave them out of the
discussion here.
I found the following textbooks particularly useful:
Holton, J.R. An introduction to dynamic meteorology, Academic Press,
Orlando, 1992.
Cushman-Roisin, B. Introduction to Geophyiscal Fluid Dynamics, Prentice-
Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1994.
Pedloski, J. Waves in the ocean and atmosphere, Introduction to wave
dynamics, Springer, New York, 2003.
And for those who would like to see real Rossby waves in the ocean: D. B.
Chelton and M. G. Schlax, Global Obeservations of Oceanic Rossby waves,
Science 272, pp. 234-238 (1996)

2 Overview of wave types

For all waves two balancing components are required. Inertia is relevant for
every wave type, but the balancing component varies. A list of the main wave
types and their common names are listed in Table 1.
Waves that make use of the (small) compressibility of air or water are acous-
tic or sound waves. However, acoustic waves have a too high wave speed to be
relevant for geophysical flows.
A second group of wave types are those who exist in barotropic flows,
i.e. flows with uniform density. The incompressibility principle implies that the
flow is non-divergent. Two steering forces are gravity and Coriolis. The simplest
waves of this type are Kelvin waves, which will be analyzed below. Kelvin waves
need a boundary, like the shore for the oceans or, strangely enough, the equator.
Without boundaries, these type of waves are Poincare waves. In fact, tsunamis
are short Poincare waves breaking on the coast, for which Coriolis forces are
less important. Kelvin and Poincare waves travel relatively fast. Rossby waves
travel much slower, because they react on variations in the Coriolis force with
the latitude. They have similarities with topographic waves, although these
waves need a background flow.

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 Table 1: Overview of wave types

Name Balancing term

Essentially compressible
Acoustic or sound waves Pressure variations

Incompressible, barotropic
Kelvin waves Gravity and Coriolis along a fluid
boundary
Poincare waves Gravity and Coriolis
Rossby waves (or planetary waves) Coriolis parameter variations
Topograpic waves Flow depth variations

Incompressible, baroclinic
Internal (gravity / Buoyancy) waves Density differences

In reality, the atmosphere and the ocean have a density that changes with
height. That adds one other type of waves, namely internal waves. These waves
are the least visible type of waves because these are completely inside the fluid
and often are confined to narrow zones.

3 Analytical preparations
3.1 The linearized shallow water equations
Here, we restrict ourselves to linear waves because they describe the dominant
wave phenomena quite well. For simplicity, we start with a barotropic, one-layer
system, thus the shallow water equations that have been derived in a previous
lecture. We linearize these equations in order to find plain wave solutions. This
simplicity is searched so that the physical mechanisms behind the wave dynamics
can be understood.
The shallow water equations are

u u u
+u +v fv = g
t x y x
v v v
+u +v + fu = g
t x y y
h uh vh
+ + = 0
t x y
h = +H

in which we recall that is the surface elevation, i.e. the elevation of the upper
surface of the fluid.

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 We linearize the equations around a state of rest, i.e. a state with zero ve-
locity, and zero surface elevation. The idea of linearization is that all variables
(u, v, ) are assumed to have infinitesimal small amplitude. This means that
terms linearly dependent on these variables have very small magnitude. How-
ever, nonlinear terms, like the advection terms, e.g. uux have a magnitude that
is even much and much smaller. So small in fact, that we can neglect them. We
then arrive at the following set of equations:
u
fv = g
t x
v
+ fu = g
t y
h u v
+ H( + ) = 0
t x y
h = +H
These equations are the basis of what is to follow.

3.2 The reduced gravity model

There are serious restrictions in applying the shallow-water equations to the
real atmosphere and the real ocean. This is because fluids are treated as homo-
geneous in the vertical, i.e. the density is assumed to be the same every where.
In reality, stratification is one the key steering factors of oceanographic and
atmospheric flows and cannot easily be neglected.
Isnt it possible to build in some variation of density with height, so some
stratification? The answer is yes. One can put a pile of shallow-water models
on top of each other and connect them properly. The simplest of those models
is the reduced gravity model (Figure 1). In the reduced gravity model the fluid
is assumed to consist of two layers of different density, in which the lower layer
fluid is at rest. To keep the lower layer at rest the horizontal pressure gradients
have to be zero there. This introduces a special relation between the upper
surface of the fluid and the interface between the two layers. It is shown below
that the reduced gravity model has the same form as the shallow-water model,
but the terms have a slightly different meaning.
The reduced gravity model presented here is set up to represent the ocean,
but with some reformulation such model can also represent the atmosphere.
Then, density must be replaced by potential density and depth by height. Fur-
thermore, the model can be extended to a multilayer reduced gravity model, in
which still the lowest layer is at rest.
We first integrate the pressure from the top of the fluid to somewhere in the
lower layer, to level z, say. Using the hydrostatic equation we find:
Z Z
pz dz = g dz
z z
The right-hand side of this equation can be evaluated by introducing the eleva-
tion of the interface between the two layers, relative to a state of rest, as . We

Upper layer
1

2 Lower layer

Figure 1: The reduced-gravity model, with surface elevation and interface

elevation . Note that is defined positive downward.

choose as positive downward, as depicted in Figure 1. We then find:

Z Z (H+) Z
g dz = g2 dz g1 dz
z z (H+)
= g( + H + )1 g((H + ) z)2

The left-hand side becomes:

Z
pz dz = p() p(z) = p(z)
z

where we use that the pressure above the fluid p() is negligible. Hence the
pressure at level z is given by:

p(z) = g( + H + )1 g(z + H + )2

Our assumption is that the lower layer fluid is at rest, or that the horizontal
pressure gradients are zero there. Taking the horizontal gradient of p(z) leads
to:
p = g1 g(2 1 ) = 0
so that we find:
g = g 0
in which g 0 is the reduced gravity acceleration given by g 0 = g(2 1 )/1 .
Since the density difference between the layers is usually much smaller than the
density itself we find that >> . This allows us to neglect compared to
in the continuity equation, so that the set of equations describing the motion in
the first layer becomes:

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 u
f v = g 0
t x
v
+ f u = g 0 (1)
t y
u v
+ H( + ) = 0
t x y

where we used that ht = t , because H is constant. Notice that these equations

for the reduced gravity model differ from those of the shallow-water equations
in that g 0 replaces g, and replaces .

3.3 Streamfunctions
A useful property in quasi-geostrophic analysis is the streamfunction captur-
ing the flow potential. It has some similarities with the surface interface height
, because can also been seen as a flow potential. In the definition of , we
use that the first order momentum balance is geostrophic:

f0 v = g 0 (2)
x

f0 u = g 0
y
If we eliminate the pressure gradient terms by cross differentiation (i.e. take
the zonal derivative of the second and subtract the meridional derivative of the
first) we find:
f0 (ux + vy ) = 0
So, the horizontal divergence of the horizontal velocities is zero, as we have found
before. However, this relation also allows us to introduce a streamfunction
as:

u = y (3)
v = x

because now
f0 (ux + vy ) = f0 (xy + xy ) = 0
for all forms of . By introducing the streamfunction we make sure that we
fulfill the continuity equation automatically. Another good thing about intro-
ducing the streamfunction is that it allows us to reduce the number of unknown
variables from 3 (u, v, and ) to 2. In fact, also can be written in terms of
the streamfunction. From the definition of the streamfunction, is defined up
to a constant, which might be time dependent. If we relate the definition of the
streamfunction (3) with the geostrophic relations (2) we find
f0
= + C(t) (4)
g0

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 Figure 2: Atmospheric Rossby waves encircle the north pole.

in which C(t) a time dependent constant. From now on we choose C(t) = 0.

(In fact, C(t) has to do with mass conservation, and in a closed domain this
becomes important. Here, we only treat waves on an infinite plane, and it can
be shown that C has to be constant, and any constant will do.)

4 The Rossby wave

The Rossby wave is interesting because its driving mechanism is the planetary
vorticity field of the rotating earth. There are several starting points for an
analysis of Rossby waves, here we start with the reduced gravity shallow water
equations (Equations 1).
The driving mechanism of Rossby waves is the interaction of the flow with
meridional variations of the Coriolis parameter f . This parameter f depends
on the latitude with
f = 2 sin
in which and are the earths angular velocity and latitude on the earth,
respectively. If the coordinate y is oriented northward and is measured from a
reference latitude 0 , for example the latitude in the middle of the wave under
consideration, then = 0 +y/a, where a is the earths radius (6371 km). Using

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Taylor expansion, we find
y
f = 2 sin 0 + 2 cos 0 + . . .
a
By approximation, this is

f f0 + 0 y, (5)

in which f0 = 2 sin 0 is the reference Coriolis parameter and 0 = 2/a cos 0

is the beta parameter. Typical mid-latitude values are f0 = 8 105 s1 and
0 = 2 1011 m1 s1 . If this approximation of f is applied in a Cartesian
framework, this framework is called the f-plane if the beta term is neglected,
and the beta plane if the beta term is retained.
When we apply the expansion of f in Equations (1), we find
u
(f0 + 0 y)v = g 0 (6)
t x
v 0
+ (f0 + 0 y)u = g (7)
t y
u v
+ H( + ) = 0. (8)
t x y
These equations, however, contain first and second other terms. The first or-
der terms (f0 , g 0 and H terms) comprise the f-plane geostrophic dynamics.
The smaller ones (time derivatives and 0 terms), are perturbations on this
geostrophic flow, but govern the Rossby wave evolution.
In order to solve these equations, we use this first order geostrophic balance
to eliminate u and v in the smaller terms of Equations (6) and (7). To recap,
the first order geostrophic balance reads
g 0
u '
fo y
g 0
v ' .
fo x
When we use this approximation for the momentum equations, we find
g0 2 0 g 0
f0 v y = g 0
f0 yt f0 x x
g0 2 0 g 0
+ + f0 u y = g 0 ,
f0 xt f0 y y
which can easily be solved to
g 0 g0 2 0 g 0
u= 2 + 2 y
f0 y f0 xt f0 y
0 0
g 2
g 0 g 0
v =+ 2 2 y .
f0 x f0 yt f0 x

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The first term of both equations are the geostrophic components, the next terms
are called ageostrophic. These terms provide a first order behavior to pertur-
bations on the geostrophic flow.
Final substitution in the continuity equation (8) leads to a single equation
for the surface interface displacement:

1
2 0 = 0, (9)
Rd2 t t x

where 2 is the two-dimensional Laplace operator and Rd = g 0 H/f0 is the
Rossby deformation radius. The Rossby radius for the reduced gravity model
is also called the internal Rossby radius of deformation, or sometimes the baro-
clinic one. The internal Rossby radius of deformation is about 1000 km for the
atmosphere and 30 to 100 km for the ocean. Reason for this nomenclature is
that it takes the internal structure of the fluid into account. As you will see
later, and will find also in other lectures, the Rossby radius of deformation is
crucial in our understanding of geophysical fluid flows.
Interestingly, for the one layer model we find the same equation, but now
the Rossby-radius of deformation is given by:

gH
Rd =
f0

The Rossby radius of deformation for the one-layer shallow-water equations is

also called the external Rossby radius of deformation, or the barotropic Rossby
radius of deformation. For atmosphere and ocean its numerical value is a few
thousand km.
Here, we derive the quasi-geostrophic equation on a beta plane as a function
of . This equation can be expressed as a function of the streamfunction .
This equation,
 
1
2 2 + =0 (10)
t Rd x

is the quasi-geostrophic vorticity equation for the reduced-gravity model.

4.1 Structure and propagation characteristics

We study wave-like solutions of the quasi-geostrophic surface displacement equa-
tion of the form:
(t, x, y) = A cos(kx + ly t)
in which k = 2/ is the zonal wavenumber, l = 2/ is the meridional
wavenumber, and is the angular frequency, also written as = 2/P in
which P is the period of the wave, while and are the wavelength of the

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wave in zonal and meridional direction. This so-called plane wave is inserted in
Equation (9) or (10), leading to:
 
1
k 2 + l2 + 2 A sin(kx + ly t) kA sin(kx + ly t) = 0
Rd

This relation is true for all x, y, and t when the factor in front of the sin(..) is
zero, so:  
2 2 1
k + l + 2 k = 0
Rd
or
k
= 2 (11)
k + l2 + R12
d

This relation that ensures that the plane wave is a solution to the quasi-
geostrophic surface interface equation is called the dispersion relation. It states
how angular frequency and the two horizontal wavenumbers k and l are
related. In Figure 3(a) the dispersion relation is drawn for zero meridional
wavenumber.
From the dispersion relation the phase speed of the wave can be found, so
the speed at which the wave crests move. The phase speed in the zonal direction
is given by the zonal wavelength divided by the wave period:

c(x) = = = 2 1
P k k + l2 + Rd2

Note that the zonal phase velocity is always negative! This result is one of the
most important results on Rossby waves: all Rossby waves have a westward
phase velocity. The meridional phase speed is found as:

k
c(y) = = =  
P l l k 2 + l2 + 1
2
Rd

which has no preferred direction.

Another interesting quantity is the velocity of the wave energy flux. This
velocity is given by the group velocity, and its zonal component is defined as
 
2 2 1
k + l + Rd2
Cg (x) = =  2
k
k 2 + l2 + R12
d

This relation is interesting because it shows that waves with large wave lengths,
so-called long waves, which have relatively small wavenumbers k and l, have
westward group velocity. Hence they can only transport energy westward! The

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 ||

1/Rd

(a) (b)

Figure 3: a) The dispersion relation of free Rossby waves for zero meridional
wavenumber. b) The group speed of free Rossby waves for zero meridional
wavenumber.

fastest waves are those with the longest wavelenghts, and the maximum is found
as Rd2 . This is illustrated in Figure 3(a), which shows the dispersion relation
of free Rossby waves with zero meridional wavenumber l = 0. The group veloc-
ity, which is the derivative of the curve, is zero at k = 1/Rd , negative for longer
waves k < 1/Rd , indicating westward energy transport, and finally positive for
short waves k > 1/Rd , indicating eastward energy transport. Figure 3(b) shows
the groups speeds for l = 0. This is one example of the importance of the Rossby
radius of deformation. Note that the phase velocity, which is the velocity of the
wave crests, can have a different direction than the group velocity, which is the
transport direction of the wave energy!
The meridional component of the group velocity is given by:

2kl
Cg (y) = = 2
l 1
k 2 + l2 + Rd2

Interestingly, the ratio of meridional phase and group velocity is always negative,
so that they always have opposite direction!
The components of group velocities are the derivatives of the angular fre-
quency of the waves to the different wavenumbers. When the group velocities
become zero, the angular frequency is maximal. When the zonal group velocity
is zero this maximum is found when

k 2 = l2 + (1/Rd )2

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and max becomes: p
l2 + (1/Rd )2
max = 2
2(l + (1/Rd )2 )
So, depending on the meridional wavenumber and the background stratification,
certain Rossby waves cannot exist. For instance, for purely zonal waves with
l = 0 the maximum frequency is

Rd
max =
2

For the ocean this limit is quite restricting due to the relatively small baroclinic
Rossby radius of deformation. No baroclinic zonal Rossby waves with periods
shorter than 90 days are possible poleward of 15o latitude, and the 180-day
period boundary lies at 30o latitude!

4.2 The propagation mechanism of Rossby waves

Let us now try to understand why the wave crests do move westward. For very
short Rossby waves the wavenumbers are much larger than the inverse of the
Rossby deformation radius squared. The potential vorticity balance (10) than
reduces to
2
+ x = 0
t
or, in terms of relative and planetary vorticity:
d
( + f ) = 0 (12)
dt
where we used x = v = df /dt and 2 = . We see that the stretching
terms, related to Rd , can be neglected. In Figure 4 an illustration is given of the
propagation mechanism. Suppose a fluid parcel has moved pole-ward compared
to its environment. The magnitude of its planetary vorticity has increased, so
it has obtained an anticyclonic relative vorticity, according to (12). Because of
this, it will act as a vortex for surrounding parcels. Its sense of rotation is such
that parcels west of it are transported northward, gaining planetary vorticity.
This gain is compensated for, according to (12), by an anticyclonic relative
vorticity change of these parcels. So, the anticyclonic vorticity of the original
parcel is transported westward.
The parcels that have gained anticyclonic vorticity will behave like vortices,
and influence parcels further west, leading to westward propagation of the wave
crests. The motion that they induce on their eastward side, where the original
parcel lies, is directed southward, pushing the original parcel back to its initial
position: the wave crest has passed by.
For very long waves the vorticity balance (10) reduces to:
1
2 =0
x Rd t

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 vortex circulation

t=0

Induced motion Induced motion

t>0
Induced circulation

Figure 4: Propagation mechanism for short waves.

or, in terms of vorticity itself:

 
d f0
f =0 (13)
dt H

in which we used the relation between the streamfunction and the interface
elevation, equation (4). Now the balance is between planetary vorticity and
stretching, and relative vorticity can be neglected. A hump at the surface will be
accompanied by geostrophic velocities along contours of equal height, according
to geostrophy. At the westward side the motion is pole ward, and at the eastward
side the motion is equator ward. The pole ward motion leads to an increase
in the magnitude of the planetary vorticity, and has to be accompanied by an
increase in magnitude of the stretching term. So, the surface elevation will
increase.
On the eastward side the induced equator ward motion leads to a decrease
in surface elevation. The net result is a westward motion of the hump.
For wavenumbers in between these two extremes both mechanisms are at
work. Note again the importance of the Rossby radius of deformation in the
physical mechanism at work.

5 The Kelvin wave

Another kind of wave of major importance is the Kelvin wave. This kind of
wave requires the support of a lateral boundary. The wave is not geostrophic,
so we start from the shallow-water equations. In this section we only treat
the one-layer case; for Kelvin waves in stratified fluids reference is made to the

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literature. The linearized shallow-water equations for a plane bottom read:
u
f v = g
t x
v
+ f u = g (14)
t y
u v
+ H( + ) = 0
t x y
Suppose now that a meridional ridge is present at x = 0, with the fluid eastward
of the ridge. Because the zonal velocity has to be zero at the meridional ridge,
we search for solutions in which u = 0 everywhere. The equations then reduce
to:

f v = g
x
v
= g (15)
t y
v
+H = 0
t y
Note that the assumption on the zonal velocity makes the wave geostrophic in
the zonal direction, as the first of these equations shows. We assume a wave
traveling in the meridional direction:

v = v0 (x)ei(lyt) (16)
i(lyt)
= 0 (x)e

in which v0 (x) and 0 (x) are complex amplitudes that depend on the zonal
coordinate. Using this in the governing equations we find:
0
f v0 = g
x
v0 = gl0
0 + Hlv0 = 0

The latter two homogeneous coupled algebraic equations have nontrivial solu-
tions if the determinant is zero:

2 gHl2 = 0

leading to two possible dispersion relations:

p
= gHl

The sign is determined by the geostrophic relation in zonal direction. The first
two governing equations can be used to eliminate v0 to find:
0 fl
= 0
x

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which can be solved as:
0 = Ae(f l/)x
The positive sign in the dispersion relation gives exponentially growing solutions
in x so they have to be discarded as unphysical. (At least in the Northern
Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere the negative sign gives unphysical
solutions.) This leaves us with the dispersion relation
p
= gHl (17)

and solution

= A cos(ly t)ex/Rd
r
g
v = A cos(ly t)ex/Rd
H

in
which Rd is the now well-known Rossby deformation radius, given by Rd =
gH/f . Interesting about this wave is that it can only travel southward along
a ridge on its west. This is a general feature of Kelvin waves: they travel
along ridges to their right. On the Southern Hemisphere Kelvin waves travel
along ridges to their left. This preference of travel direction must be due to the
Coriolis force because that force introduces directions in the problem. Indeed,
the wave is in geostrophic balance in the zonal direction, so an eastward directed
pressure force (related to a positive surface elevation) is balanced by a westward
directed Coriolis force, and the other way around. This means that when the
sea-surface elevation is positive the parcels have to move southward to generate
that Coriolis force, and northward when the sea-surface elevation is negative.
This is consistent with the wave dynamics when the wave crests move southward.
The phase velocity of the wave follows from the dispersion relation as:
p
c(y) = gH

Since this velocity does not depend on l the wave is nondispersive. The group
velocity is in that case equal to the phase velocity:
p
c(y)
g = gH

It is left as an exercise for the reader to show that Kelvin wave solutions in a
reduced gravity model are simply obtained from the solution presented above
by replacing g with g 0 and by interpreting as the interface deviation.
A special kind of Kelvin waves play an important role in the equatorial
dynamics. Here no solid boundary is present to lean against, but a Kelvin
wave in the Northern Hemisphere leans against a similar one on the Southern
Hemisphere. It can be shown that this configuration has to move eastward.
It plays a dominant role in e.g. the El Nino phenomenon, but unfortunately
we cannot treat these waves in this short lecture. Use the literature at the
beginning of this chapter to learn more about these exciting waves!

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Acknowledgments
I thank Peter Jan van Leeuwen and Willem Jan van de Berg for providing me
with their material for preparing this lecture.

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