Waves On A Mean Current: Doppler Shift
Water waves on a mean flow (so a wave in a moving medium) experience a Doppler shift. Suppose the dispersion relation for a non-moving medium is:
with k the wavenumber. Then for a medium with mean velocity vector V, the dispersion relationship with Doppler shift becomes:
where k is the wavenumber vector, related to k as: k = |k|. The inner product k•V is equal to: k•V = kV cos α, with V the length of the mean velocity vector V: V = |V|. And α the angle between the wave propagation direction and the mean flow direction. For waves and current in the same direction, k•V=kV.
Read more about this topic: Dispersion (water Waves)
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