Stem waves along a depth discontinuity

Abstract
The nonlinear Schrödinger equation derived by Liu and Tsay (1984) is used to investigate the forward scattering of the second‐order Stokes waves by a depth discontinuity. It is shown that, due to nonlinearity, stem waves develop along a line caustic. The structure of the present stem waves is similar to that found by Yue and Mei (1980) along the wall of a thin wedge.