Kelvin wave

English

Etymology

Named after Lord Kelvin, the discoverer (1879).

Noun

Kelvin wave (plural Kelvin waves)

1. (meteorology, 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.
   • 2023 July 18, Katie McCormick, “How Quantum Physics Describes Earth’s Weather Patterns”, in Quanta Magazine‎^[1]:

     Geophysicists have leaned on a mathematical explanation for equatorial Kelvin waves since the 1960s, but for some, that explanation wasn’t entirely satisfying.

2. A long-scale perturbation mode of a vortex in superfluid dynamics.

Hypernyms

• wave

Further reading

• Kelvin wave on Wikipedia.Wikipedia