The dynamics of a meandering coastal jet in the lee of a cape

Abstract

In a barotropic model of an oceanic channel, bounded to the north by a straight coast indented by a Gaussian cape, the evolution of a coastal jet is studied numerically. In the absence of the cape, the barotropic instability of the jet is determined. In the presence of the cape, a regular row of meanders develops downstream of this feature, and becomes stationary for a particular range of parameters. The relevant parameters are the velocity and width of the jet, size of the cape, and beta effect. The formation of meanders occurs first via the instability of the jet, then via the generation of vorticity anomalies at the cape, which are advected both downstream by the flow and offshore by the radiation of Rossby waves. Once the meanders are established, they remain stationary features if the propagation velocity of the meanders (due to the dipolar effect at the coast) opposes the jet velocity and the phase speed of the wave on the vorticity front. Finally, a steady state of a regular row of meanders is also obtained via a matrix method and is similar to that obtained in the time-dependent case.