Generation of geostrophic motions of an inhomogeneous fluid by surface pressure

The conditions of generation of a geostrophic flow by a pressure zone applied to the free surface of an undisturbed continuously stratified fluid layer of constant depth are determined in the general linear formulation. At large times the spatial external pressure distribution is assumed to tend to the steady state. In the axisymmetric case the geostrophic vortex is qualitatively analyzed on the basis of a numerical calculation of integral representations of the hydrodynamic fields for a fluid with an exponential density stratification. Sevastopol. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 51–59, January–February, 1999.