Kelvin wave
nounEtymology Named after Lord Kelvin, the discoverer (1879).
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Climatology, Geography, Meteorology, Natural sciences, Oceanography A non-dispersive wave in the ocean or atmosphere that balances the Earth's Coriolis force against a topographic boundary such as a coastline, or a waveguide such as the equator.
- Geophysicists have leaned on a mathematical explanation for equatorial Kelvin waves since the 1960s, but for some, that explanation wasn’t entirely satisfying.2023 July 18, Katie McCormick, “How Quantum Physics Describes Earth’s Weather Patterns”, in Quanta Magazine:
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A long-scale perturbation mode of a vortex in superfluid dynamics.
- Hypernyms
- wave