The theory of wave boundary layers developed in [7], is generalized to the case of stably-neutrally stratified ocean consisting of upper homogeneous and lower stratified layers. In this configuration, in addition to the boundary layers near the ocean bottom and/or surface, a wave boundary layer develops near the interface between the layers in the lower stratified part of basin. Each the boundary layer is a narrow domain characterized by sharp, growing in time, vertical gradients of buoyancy and horizontal velocity. As in [7], the near interface boundary layer arises as a result of free linear evolution of rather general initial fields. An asymptotic solution describing the long-term evolution is presented and compared to exact solution; the asymptotic solution approximates the exact one fairly well even on not very large times.
A modified defect function for wave boundary layers
