Speaker:  Tim Rees, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria

Location:  ESB 4133

Intended Audience:  Public

The Taylor-Goldstein (TG) equation governs the linear stability of internal gravity waves in an inviscid, stratified shear flow.  It can be used to predict the most unstable modes in a flow, and is therefore useful in a wide range of geophysical applications.  The TG equation is a singular eigenvalue problem, and attempting to solve it numerically for general velocity and stratification profiles is technically challenging.  I will describe an ongoing project where the TG equation is used to understand processes in the atmospheric boundary layer.  The focus of the talk will be on the numerical methods that are used to solve the TG equation, and some of the difficulties that arise in their application.