The basic wave field resulting from Holmboe's instability is studied both numerically and experimentally. Comparisons between the direct numerical simulations (DNS) and laboratory experiments result in Holmboe waves that are similar in their appearance and phase speed. However, different boundary conditions result in mean flows that display gradual variations either temporally (in the simulations) or spatially (in the experiments). These differences are found to affect the evolution of the dominant wavenumber and amplitude of the wave field. The simulations exhibit a nonlinear ‘wave coarsening’ effect, whereby the energy is shifted to lower wavenumbers in discrete merging events. This process is typically found to result from either ejections of mixed fluid away from the density interface or vortex pairing. In the experiments, energy is transferred to lower wavenumbers by the ‘stretching’ of the wave field by a gradually varying mean velocity. This stretching results in a reduction of wave amplitude compared with the DNS.
