A Nonsymmetric Equatorial Inertial Instability

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Abstract
Inertial instabilities on the equatorial beta-plane may take the form of a zonally nonsymmetric disturbance while preserving their centrifugal character. Numerical experiments at finite zonal wavenumber suggest a preferred mode of instability with zonal wavenumber between the symmetric value and a short-wave cutoff in linear cross-equatorial shear. Zonal nonsymmetric results in a slight reduction of the marginally stable shear in the presence of second-order diffusion.