Abstract
Some numerical experiments On geostrophic adjustment in a gratified channel were carried out, partly to test the use of an ocean general circulation model (GCM), and partly to elucidate the dynamical effects of sloping bottom topography on the adjustment at different latitudes. Interesting dynamical effects include the release of potential energy through shelf waves, the nonlinear generation of barotropic flow by a baroclinic Kelvin wave and the nonlinear generation of shelf waves with approximately half the inertial frequency by internal Poincaré waves of near-inertial frequency. Problems that inevitably occur in the use of GCMs were also highlighted.
