Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2009
The leading-order interaction of short gravity waves with a dominant long-wave swell is calculated by means of Zakharov's [7] spectral formulation. Results are obtained both for a discrete train of short waves and for a localised wave packet comprising a spectrum of short waves.
The results for a discrete wavetrain agree with previous work of Longuet-Higgins & Stewart [5], and general agreement is found with parallel work of Grimshaw [4] which employed a very different wave-action approach.