Dispersion relation for equatorially-trapped internal water waves

Abstract: In this introductory talk I will present a recently derived exact and explicit solution for the governing equations of geophysical water waves. Assuming no background in fluid mechanics, I introduce basic ideas behind internal water waves and explain some of the physical complexities of the model. Using numerical simulations, I present videos of internal waves generated by the oscillation of interfaces inside the fluid body. Finally I discuss the dispersion relation, which is a mathematically elegant formula encoding rich physical information about the flow, particularly the wave speed, in terms of fixed physical parameters.