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A method is developed to describe the linear internal wavefield generated by an oscillating source in horizontally moving, depth-dependent background. Ray theory is used to approximate the vertical eigenfunctions. A spatial solution is then obtained by inverse Fourier transform. This is a practical approach with a more convenient range of validity than the method of spatial ray tracing. The solutions for a stationary source and for a vertically oscillating source in a vertically sheared background current are given for illustration.

Large altitude asymptotic approximations are derived for vertical displacements due to mountain waves generated by hydrostatic wind flow over arbitrary topography. This leads to new asymptotic analytic expressions for wave-induced vertical displacement for mountains with an elliptical Gaussian shape and with the major axis oriented at any angle relative to the background wind. The motivation is to understand local maxima in vertical displacement amplitude at a given height for elliptical mountains aligned at oblique angles to the wind direction, as identified in Eckermann et al. [“Effects of horizontal geometrical spreading on the parameterization of orographic gravity-wave drag. Part 1: Numerical transform solutions,” J. Atmos. Sci. 72, 2330–2347 (2015)]. The standard stationary phase method reproduces one type of local amplitude maximum that migrates downwind with increasing altitude. Another type of local amplitude maximum stays close to the vertical axis over the center of the mountain, and a new generalized stationary phase method is developed to describe this other type of local amplitude maximum and the horizontal variation of wave-induced vertical displacement near the vertical axis of the mountain in the large altitude limit. The new generalized stationary phase method describes the asymptotic behavior of integrals where the asymptotic parameter is raised to two different powers (1/2 and 1) rather than just one power as in the standard stationary phase method. The vertical displacement formulas are initially derived assuming a uniform background wind but are extended to accommodate both vertical shear with a fixed wind direction and vertical variations in the buoyancy frequency.

The refraction of a spectrum of short internal waves by a packet of inertia waves is considered. It is found that a short inertia-wave packet produces a larger net change in a spectrum of short waves than a long inertia-wave packet, provided the short waves are trapped at some time during the interaction. Specifically, an incident narrow-banded short-wave spectrum broadens more quickly and more fully when refracted by the short inertia-wave packet. The results are explained in terms of a frequency conservation law, which constrains short-wave change in the limit of a long inertia-wave packet.