Coastal imbalance: generation of oceanic Kelvin waves by atmospheric perturbations

Abstract

The response of a semi-infinite ocean to a slowly travelling atmospheric perturbation crossing the coast provides a simple example of the breakdown of nearly geostrophic balance induced by a boundary. We examine this response in the linear shallow-water model at small Rossby number $\varepsilon \ll 1$. Using matched asymptotics we show that a long Kelvin wave, with $O(\varepsilon^{-1})$ length scale and $O(\varepsilon)$ amplitude relative to quasigeostrophic response, is generated as the perturbation crosses the coast. Accounting for this Kelvin wave restores the conservation of mass which is violated in the quasigeostrophic approximation.