Geostrophic fronts, bores, breaking and blocking waves

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Abstract
An undisturbed geostrophic density current flows along a vertical wall (the coast) with the free streamline (the front) located at a distanceLfrom the wall which is comparable to the Rossby radius of deformation. Finite amplitude perturbations with downstream wavelengths much larger thanLare discussed, and it is shown that the slope of the front in the horizontal plane increases with time. Some perturbations tend to ‘break’ seaward by developing large transverse velocities away from the coast. The temporal evolution of some perturbations is such as to completely ‘block’ the upstream flow, but the subsequent behaviour is beyond the scope of the theory. We also discuss the propagation of the nose of the intrusion when a density current debouches from a coastal source and then flows along the coastal boundary.

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