Gravity Versus Buoyancy
Suppose a water column is in hydrostatic equilibrium and displace a small packet of fluid with density vertically by a distance . The balance between the force of gravity and the buoyant restoring force is disturbed, and the motion of the packet obeys the equation
where is the gravitational acceleration. The packet oscillates at the Brunt–Väisälä frequency:
The Brunt–Väisälä frequency is an upper limit for the frequency in actual internal waves.
Read more about this topic: Internal Wave
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