A steady-state solver and stability calculator for nonlinear internal wave flows

A steady solver and stability calculator is presented for the problem of nonlinear internal gravity waves forced by topography. Steady-state solutions are obtained using Newton’s method, as applied to a finite-difference discretization in terrain-following coordinates. The iteration is initialized with a boundary-inflation scheme, in which the nonlinearity of the flow is gradually increased over the first few Newton steps. The resulting method is shown to be robust over the full range of nonhydrostatic and rotating parameter space. Examples are given for both nonhydrostatic and rotating flows, as well as flows with realistic upstream shear and static stability profiles. With a modest extension, the solver also allows for a linear stability analysis of the steady-state wave fields. Unstable modes are computed using a shifted-inverse method, combined with a parameter-space search over a set of realistic target values. An example is given showing resonant instability in a nonhydrostatic mountain wave.