Analytical-Numerical Method for Solving the Spectral Problem in a Model of Geostrophic Ocean Currents

Abstract

A new efficient analytical-numerical method is developed for solving a problem for the potential vorticity equation in the quasi-geostrophic approximation with allowance for vertical diffusion of mass and momentum. The method is used to analyze small perturbations of ocean currents of finite transverse scale with a general parabolic vertical profile of velocity. For the arising spectral non-self-adjoint problem, asymptotic expansions of the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues are constructed for small wave numbers \(k\) and the existence of a countable set of complex eigenvalues with an unboundedly decreasing imaginary part is shown. On the integration interval \(z \in [ - 1,1]\), a system of three neighborhoods is introduced and a solution in each of them is constructed in the form of power series expansions, which are matched smoothly, so that the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues are efficiently calculated with high accuracy. For a varying wave number \(k\), the trajectories of complex eigenvalues are computed for various parameters of the problem and the existence of double eigenvalues is shown. The complex picture of instability developing in the simulated flow depending on physical parameters of the problem is briefly described.