Energy and pseudomomentum of propagating disturbances on the beta-plane

The far-field amplitude of the waves generated by a steadily propagating radially symmetric disturbance on the beta-plane is calculated using Lighthill's method. From this can be obtained the fluxes of quantities such as wave energy which are radiated away from the disturbance. The radiated wave power is computed for a variety of forms of the disturbance. The rate of change of pseudomomentum in the system is also calculated: the component parallel to the motion of the disturbance is the radiated wave power divided by velocity. Results are compared to previous work and some physical issues are discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.