Environmental, Industrial and Climatological Impacts of Internal Gravity Waves

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All naturally occurring fluids are stratified, meaning that their effective density decreases with height. The decrease can be rapid and localized, as at a thermocline in the ocean or at an atmospheric inversion. Or it can be gradual, as in the stratosphere. Propagating within such stratified fluids are internal waves, which move due to buoyancy forces. Because they transport energy and momentum and cause turbulence where they break, the waves have important consequences for climate, environment, air traffic, fisheries, offshore oil and other industries. However, relatively little is known about the dynamics of localized internal waves. Through three interrelated research streams, I propose to perform laboratory experiments and numerical simulations to develop predictive models for the evolution and breakdown of atmospheric and oceanic internal wave packets.