On the interactions between mean flows and inertial gravity waves in the WKB approximation

TL;DR

This paper develops a WKB-based closure model for inertial gravity waves within the generalized Lagrangian mean framework, incorporating stochastic effects to better understand wave-mean flow interactions in geophysical fluid dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified, stochastic WKB closure model for wave-mean flow interactions in the Euler--Boussinesq equations, extending previous deterministic formulations.

Findings

Derived a WKB closure for GLM theory in EB equations.

Formulated deterministic and stochastic models for IGW interactions.

Simplified the understanding of wave-mean flow dynamics in geophysical flows.

Abstract

We derive a Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) closure of the generalised Lagrangian mean (GLM) theory by using a phase-averaged Hamilton variational principle for the Euler--Boussinesq (EB) equations. Following Gjaja and Holm 1996, we consider 3D inertial gravity waves (IGWs) in the EB approximation. The GLM closure for WKB IGWs expresses EB wave mean flow interaction (WMFI) as WKB wave motion boosted into the reference frame of the EB equations for the Lagrangian mean transport velocity. We provide both deterministic and stochastic closure models for GLM IGWs at leading order in 3D complex vector WKB wave asymptotics. This paper brings the Gjaja and Holm 1996 paper at leading order in wave amplitude asymptotics into an easily understood short form and proposes a stochastic generalisation of the WMFI equations for IGWs.