Kelvin wave propagation along an irregular coastline

Abstract

We discuss the theory of Kelvin wave propagation along an infinitely long coast-line which is straight except for small deviations which are treated as a stationary random function of distance along the coast. An operator expansion technique is used to derive the dispersion relation for the coherent Kelvin wave field. For the subinertial case σ = ω/f < 1 (ω = wave frequency, f = Coriolis parameter), it is shown that the wave speed is always decreased by the coastal irregularities. Moreover, while the coherent wave amplitude is unaltered, the energy flux along the coast is decreased by the irregularities. For the case σ > 1, however, we show that in the direction of propagation the wave is attenuated (with the energy being scattered into the random Poincaré and Kelvin wave modes) and that the wave speed is again decreased. Applications of the theory are made to the California coast and North Siberian coast to determine the decrease in phase velocity due to small coastal irregularities. For the California coast the percentage decrease is only about 1%. For the Siberian coast, however, the percentage decrease is about 25% for the K1 tide, and a minimum of 25% for the M2 tide. The attenuation of a Kelvin wave, however, appears to be due to very large scale irregularities. An estimate of the actual attenuation rate is not possible, though, because of the relatively short extent of coastal contours available for spectral analysis.Although attention in this paper has been focused on Kelvin wave propagation, the method developed could readily be used to study the behaviour of other classes of waves trapped against a randomly perturbed boundary.