Seamount- or Lake/Basin-trapped waves with stratification, topography, mean flow and bottom friction in Matlab

Abstract

This set of Matlab mfiles (all having names that begin with “bigs”) can be used to calculate seamount-trapped (or basin-trapped) wave modal structures and dispersion curves under very general circumstances. A complex frequency is allowed, so that instability and damping can be accounted for directly. Modal structures and energy diagnostics are provided. For most applications, the code is only useful for subinertial wave frequencies (i.e., the real part of wave frequency is smaller than the Coriolis parameter). For interpreting the model results, see Brink (1989), which deals with the case with no mean flow or finite bottom friction. The present code was developed independently of the Fortran code used in that publication.