The characteristics of shallow-water waves in a linear shear flow are studied, and the relationship between waves and unstable modes is examined. Numerical integration of the linear shallow-water equations shows that over-reflection occurs when a wave packet is incident at the turning surface. This phenomenon can be explained by the conservation of momentum as discussed by Acheson (1976). The unstable modes of linear shear flow in a shallow water found by Satomura (1981) are described in terms of the properties of wave propagation as proposed by Lindzen and others. Ripas's (1983) theorem, which is the sufficient condition for stability of flows in shallow water, is also related to the wave geometry. The Orr mechanism, which is proposed by Lindzen (1988) as the primary mechanism of wave amplification, cannot explain the over-reflection of shallow-water waves. The amplification of these waves occurs in the opposite sense to that of Orr's solution.

The effects of thermal conditions on the patterns of two-dimensional Boussinesq convection are studied by numerical integration. The adopted thermal conditions are (i) the heat fluxes through both upper and lower boundaries are fixed, (ii) the same as (i) but with internal cooling, (iii) the temperature on the lower boundary and the heat flux through the upper boundary are fixed, (iv) the same as (iii) but with internal cooling, and (v) the temperatures on both upper and lower boundaries are fixed. The numerical integrations are performed with Ra = 104 and Pr = 1 over the region whose horizontal and vertical lengths are 8 and 1, respectively.

The results confirm that convective cells with the larger horizontal sizes tend to form under the conditions where the temperature is not fixed on any boundaries. Regardless of the existence of internal cooling, one pair of cells spreading all over the region forms in the equilibrium states. On the other hand, three pairs of cells form and remain when the temperature on at least one boundary is fixed. The formation of single pairs of cells appearing under the fixed heat flux conditions shows different features with and without internal cooling. The difference emerges as the appearance of a phase change, whose existence can be suggested by the weak nonlinear equation derived by Chapman & Proctor (1980).