From internal waves to microscale breakers: towards understanding their role in large-scale processes

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Lakes, the oceans and the atmosphere are all density stratified fluids. In lakes the stratification is most often due to temperature variations, with cold dense water lying beneath lighter, warm surface waters. Sometimes the presence of salts can contribute to the stratification. In the ocean variations in both temperature and salinity are important. One consequence of the stratification is the presence of internal gravity waves which are ubiquitous in the interior of lakes, oceans and the atmosphere. These waves are driven by gravitational restoring forces acting on vertically displaced fluids. At the surface of lakes and oceans, surface water waves are found. Here gravitational restoring forces as well as surface tension forces come in to play. Surface tension significantly modifies the properties of surface waves at length scales less than a few centimeters.