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- Title
A Baroclinic Laminar State for Rotating Stratified Flows.
- Authors
Che Sun
- Abstract
A baroclinic laminar model is developed as the late-time equilibrium state in the free decay of rotating stratified turbulence under low-Froude-number scaling. Vertical motions are suppressed by stratification and ambient rotation, and in the laminar end state the flow assumes a quasi-two-dimensional form. Geometric analyses of this nonlinear conservative model reveal an f-plane baroclinic topology characterized by vertical alignment, vanishing nonlinearity, and the complete absence of helicity. Equivalent-barotropic flow is the only nonunique baroclinic solution, and its horizontal topology is restricted to a unidirectional jet and a circular vortex. Such a depleted geometry results from the constraint of basic equations where density is advected as an active scalar. It provides a baroclinic mechanism for the formation of coherent structures in geophysical flows.
- Subjects
BAROCLINIC models; STRATIFIED flow; ATMOSPHERIC turbulence; LAMINAR flow; BAROCLINICITY; TOPOLOGY; TURBULENCE; FLUID models in geophysics; DYNAMIC meteorology
- Publication
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 2008, Vol 65, Issue 8, p2740
- ISSN
0022-4928
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1175/2008JAS2693.1