Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2010
The generation and energy downscaling of wind-forced long internal waves in strongly stratified small-to-medium sized narrow lakes are studied. A two-layer nonlinear model with forcing and damping is employed. Even though the wave field is fundamentally bidirectional in nature, a domain folding technique is employed to simulate the leading-order internal wave field in terms of a weakly nonlinear weakly dispersive model equation of Korteweg–deVries type. Parametric effects of wind-forcing and environmental conditions, including variable topography and variable basin width, are examined. Energy downscaling from basin-scale waves to shorter scales are quantified by means of a time evolution of the wave energy spectra. It is demonstrated that an internal wave resonance is possible when repetitive wind-forcing events arise with a frequency near the linear seiche frequency. An attempt is made to apply the model to describe the shoaling of long waves on sloping endwall boundaries. Modelling of the energy loss and energy reflection during a shoaling event is calibrated against laboratory experiments.