Abstract
The incompressibility constraint on ocean flows generates nonlocal effects, even in the case of uniform rotation and stratification. In particular, the geometry of ocean basins drastically alters wave propagation and energy transfer: internal and inertial waves can focus on very narrow regions, with very small-scale oscillations that concentrate energy. This wave attractor phenomenon has been reproduced in the laboratory.
It was initially explained using ray-tracing methods that account for the fact that the dispersion relation dictates the direction of propagation and is therefore incompatible with specular reflection at the boundaries. This semi-classical analysis, based on a scale separation assumption, was subsequently validated by a more robust study showing that the wave propagator has a continuous spectrum and describing the quasi-resonance mechanism involved in the response to forcing.
