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Importance of the continuous spectrum in the excitation of sheared surface gravity waves

J. R. Carpenter

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 024804 – Published 23 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/414c-z8fc

Abstract

The initial value problem is solved for the excitation of long surface gravity waves in a continuously sheared flow. This reveals the presence of a continuous spectrum alongside the standard normal modes of gravity wave propagation. An analytical similarity solution for the evolution of the free surface displacement from the continuous spectrum is found for the impulse response to surface excitation. It is demonstrated that the continuous spectrum contribution can be a significant fraction of the surface response, with the amplitude of the continuous spectrum exceeding that of the upstream gravity wave mode for Froude numbers of order unity. Thus, the continuous spectrum is shown to be a physically important part of the gravity wave response to forcing in sheared flows. The Landau damped mode description of the continuous spectrum is found to provide a link between methods using dispersion relations for phase speeds within the range of the velocity profile and the variable-shear profiles that do not admit normal modes in this range.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 024804– Published 23 February, 2026
  • Received 17 June 2025
  • Accepted 16 December 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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