Forced Waves in a Baroclinic Shear Flow. Part 2: Damped and Undamped Response to Weak Near-Resonant Forcing

Abstract

This paper is a continuation of a study of the response of a two-layer baroclinic fluid to weak, near resonant planetary wave forcing. Unlike Part I (Plumb, 1979), the fluid is baroclinically stable and viscous damping is incorporated into the model. With no damping, periodic solutions are found which are similar to but simpler than those of Part 1. With the addition of damping, multiple steady solutions are possible, in agreement with results of earlier studies, notably Charney and DeVore (1979). The importance of nonlinear resonance, the relationships between inviscid and viscous dynamics, and the time scales on which these processes act are investigated by numerical integration of a series of initial value problems.