Floquet theory is used to describe the unstable spectrum at large scales of the beta-plane equation linearized about Rossby waves. Base flows consisting of one to three Rossby wave are considered analytically using continued fractions and the method of multiple scales, while base flow with more than three Rossby waves are studied numerically. It is demonstrated that the mechanism for instability changes from inflectional to triad resonance at an O(1) transition Rhines number Rh, independent of the Reynolds number. For a single Rossby wave base flow, the critical Reynolds number Re^c for instability is found in various limits. In the limits Rh --> infinity and k --> 0, the classical value Re^c = sqrt(2) is recovered. For Rh --> 0 and all orientations of the Rossby wave except zonal and meridional, the base flow is unstable for all Reynolds numbers; a zonal Rossby wave is stable, while a meridional Rossby wave has critical Reynolds number Re^c = sqrt(2). For more isotropic base flows consisting of many Rossby waves (up to forty), the most unstable mode is purely zonal for 2 <= Rh < infinity and is nearly zonal for Rh = 1/2, where the transition Rhines number is again O(1), independent of the Reynolds number and consistent with a change in the mechanism for instability from inflectional to triad resonance.
Results from the laboratory experiments on the evolution of vortices (eddies) generated in a rotating tank with topographic beta-effect are presented. The surface elevation and velocity fields are measured by the Altimetric Imaging Velocimetry. The experiments are supplemented by shallow water numerical simulations as well as a linear theory which describes the Rossby wave radiation by travelling vortices. The cyclonic vortices observed in the experiments travel to the northwest and continuously radiate Rossby waves. Measurements show that initially axisymmetric vortices develop a dipolar comp…
This study derives a complete set of equatorially confined wave solutions from an anelastic equation set with the complete Coriolis terms, which include both the vertical and meridional planetary vorticity. The propagation mechanism can change with the effective static stability. When the effective static stability reduces to neutral, buoyancy ceases, but the role of buoyancy as an eastward-propagation mechanism is replaced by the compressional beta effect, i.e., vertical density-weighted advection of the meridional planetary vorticity. For example, the Kelvin mode becomes a compressional Ross…
The connectivity pattern of networks, which are based on a correlation between ground level temperature time series, shows a dominant dense stripe of links in the southern ocean. We show that statistical categorization of these links yields a clear association with the pattern of an atmospheric Rossby wave, one of the major mechanisms associated with the weather system and with planetary scale energy transport. It is shown that alternating densities of negative and positive links (correlations) are arranged in half Rossby wave distances around 3,500 km, 7,000 km and 10,000 km and are aligned w…
Results from a new series of experiments on flows generated by localized heating in the presence of a background zonal current on the polar beta-plane are presented. The flow induced by a heater without the background zonal flow is in the form of a beta-plume. Zonal jets of alternating directions are formed within the plume. The westward transport velocity in the plume is proportional to the upwelling velocity above the heater in agreement with linear theory. When the background flow in the form of the eastward zonal current is present, the beta-plume can be overwhelmed by the eastward current…
Green's functions for Rossby waves in an azimuthal wind are obtained, in which the stream-function $ψ$ depends on $r$, $ϕ$ and $t$, where $r$ is cylindrical radius and $ϕ$ is the azimuthal angle in the $β$-plane relative to the easterly direction, in which the $x$-axis points east and the $y$-axis points north. The Rossby wave Green's function with no wind is obtained using Fourier transform methods, and is related to the previously known Green's function obtained for this case, which has a different but equivalent form to the Green's function obtained in the present paper. We emphasize the ro…
Results from a new series of experiments on barotropic and baroclinic turbulent flows generated in a rotating tank with topographic beta-effect are presented. The velocity fields are measured by the Altimetric Imaging Velocimetry. The turbulent flows observed in the experiments develop zonal jets which are latent in a stationary forced-dissipative regime of the flow but become prominent in the decaying flow. The two-dimensional energy spectra of the flows exhibit the development of anisotropy towards zonal motions. The experiments demonstrate dual turbulent cascade with energy and enstrophy ra…
Motivated by the discrepancy between satellite observations of coherent westward propagating surface features and Rossby wave theory, this paper revisits the planetary wave propagation problem, taking into account the effects of lateral buoyancy gradients at the ocean's surface. The standard theory for long baroclinic Rossby waves is based on an expansion of the quasigeostrophic stretching operator in normal modes, $ϕ_n(z)$, satisfying a Neumann boundary condition at the surface, $ϕ_n'(0) = 0$. Buoyancy gradients are, by thermal wind balance, proportional to the vertical derivative of the stre…
Quasigeostrophic turbulence on a beta-plane with a finite deformation radius is studied nu- merically, with particular emphasis on frequency and combined wavenumber-frequency do- main analyses. Under suitable conditions, simulations with small-scale random forcing and large-scale drag exhibit a spontaneous formation of multiple zonal jets. The first hint of wave-like features is seen in the distribution of kinetic energy as a function of frequency; specifically, for progressively larger deformation scales there are systematic departures in the form of isolated peaks (at progressively higher fr…
Stochastic Structural Stability Theory (S3T) provides analytical methods for understanding the emergence and equilibration of jets from the turbulence in planetary atmospheres based on the dynamics of the statistical mean state of the turbulence closed at second order. Predictions for formation and equilibration of turbulent jets made using S3T are critically compared with results of simulations made using the associated quasi-linear and nonlinear models. S3T predicts the observed bifurcation behavior associated with the emergence of jets, their equilibration and their breakdown as a function …
We develop a theory of three-dimensional slow Rossby waves in rotating spherical density stratified convection. The Rossby waves with frequencies which are much smaller than the rotating frequency, are excited by a non-axisymmetric instability from the equilibrium based on the developed convection. These waves interact with the inertial waves and the density stratified convection. The density stratification is taken into account using the anelastic approximation for very low-Mach-number flows. We study long-term planetary Rossby waves with periods which are larger than two years. We suggest th…
Recent studies found that atmospheric superrotation (i.e., west-to-east winds over the equator) on tidally locked planets can modify the phase of planetary waves. But, a clear relationship between the superrotation and the magnitude of the phase shift was not examined. In this study, we re-investigate this problem using a two-dimensional (2D) linear shallow water model with a specified uniform zonal flow. We find that the degree of the phase shift is a monotonic but nonlinear function of the strength of the mean flow, and the phase shift has two limits of -$π$ and +$π$. The existence of these …
The scaling argument developed by Larichev and Held (1995) for eddy amplitudes and fluxes in a horizontally homogeneous, two-layer model on an f-plane is extended to a beta-plane. In terms of the non-dimensional number x = U/(beta*lambda^2), where lambda is the deformation radius and U is the mean thermal wind, the result for the RMS eddy velocity V, the characteristic wavenumber of the energy-containing eddies and of the eddy-driven jets k, and the magnitude of the eddy diffusivity for potential vorticity D, in the limit x>>1, are as follows: V/U ~ x ; k*lambda ~ 1/x ; D/(U*lambda) ~ x^2. Num…
We develop a new nonlinear stability method, the Energy-Enstrophy (EZ) method, that is specialized to two-dimensional hydrodynamics; the method is applied to a beta-plane flow driven by a sinusoidal body force, and retarded by drag with damping time-scale mu^{-1}. The standard energy method (Fukuta and Murakami, J. Phys. Soc. Japan, 64, 1995, pp 3725) shows that the laminar solution is monotonically and globally stable in a certain portion of the (mu,beta)-parameter space. The EZ method proves nonlinear stability in a larger portion of the (mu,beta)-parameter space. And by penalizing high wave…
Planetary turbulent flows are observed to self-organize into large scale structures such as zonal jets and coherent vortices. One of the simplest models of planetary turbulence is obtained by considering a barotropic flow on a beta-plane channel with turbulence sustained by random stirring. Non-linear integrations of this model show that as the energy input rate of the forcing is increased, the homogeneity of the flow is broken with the emergence of non-zonal, coherent, westward propagating structures and at larger energy input rates by the emergence of zonal jets. We study the emergence of no…
Results from the laboratory experiments on the evolution of baroclinically unstable flows generated in a rotating tank with topographic beta-effect are presented. We study zonal jets of alternating direction which occur in these flows. The primary system we model includes lighter fluid in the South and heavier fluid in the North with resulting slow meridional circulation and fast mean zonal motion. In a two-layer system the velocity shear between the layers results in baroclinic instability which equilibrates with time and, due to interaction with beta-effect generates zonal jets. This system …
Invariant parameterization schemes for the eddy-vorticity flux in the barotropic vorticity equation on the beta-plane are constructed and then applied to turbulence modeling. This construction is realized by the exhaustive description of differential invariants for the maximal Lie invariance pseudogroup of this equation using the method of moving frames, which includes finding functional bases of differential invariants of arbitrary order, a minimal generating set of differential invariants and a basis of operators of invariant differentiation in an explicit form. Special attention is paid to …
Jets coexist with planetary scale waves in the turbulence of planetary atmospheres. The coherent component of these structures arises from cooperative interaction between the coherent structures and the incoherent small-scale turbulence in which they are embedded. It follows that theoretical understanding of the dynamics of jets and planetary scale waves requires adopting the perspective of statistical state dynamics (SSD) which comprises the dynamics of the interaction between coherent and incoherent components in the turbulent state. In this work the S3T implementation of SSD for barotropic …
Zonal jets and non-zonal large-scale flows are often present in forced-dissipative barotropic turbulence on a beta-plane. The dynamics underlying the formation of both zonal and non-zonal coherent structures is investigated in this work within the statistical framework of Stochastic Structural Stability Theory (S3T). Previous S3T studies have shown that the homogeneous turbulent state undergoes a bifurcation at a critical parameter and becomes inhomogeneous with the emergence of zonal and/or large-scale non-zonal flows and that these statistical predictions of S3T are reflected in direct numer…
