Barotropic instability of weakly non-parallel zonal flows

Barotropic instability of weakly non-parallel zonal flows with localized intense shear regions is investigated numerically. The numerical integrations of the linear stability problem reveal the existence of unstable localized wave packets whose spatial structure and eigenfrequencies depend on two parameters which measure the degree of supercriticality and the zonal length-scale of the shear region. The results indicate that the structure of the instability is determined by conditions that ensure the decay of the wave packet at infinity and the transition from long to short waves across a turning point (critical layer) region which is controlled by non-parallel effects. The controlling influence exerted by the weak non-parallel effects on the evolution of the instability underlines the weakness of the parallel flow assumption which can be used locally, away from critical layers, as a diagnostic tool only.