A comparison of numerical simulations of eddy generation performed with a two- and a three-layer quasi-geostrophic model of oceanic mesoscale eddies
Abstract
The generation of eddies by a large-scale flow over mesoscale topography is studied with the help of two- and three-layer nonlinear quasi-geostrophic models of the open ocean. The equations are integrated forward in time with no eddies present initially. For a given time, the displacement of the interface between layers two and three () tends to a well-defined limit (function of the horizontal spatial coordinates) as 3- 2 0 (r is the density of layer r). Even for values of α[= (ρ3 - ρ2)/(ρ2 - ρ1)] as small as 0.01 the potential energy due to ζ is not negligible and it can reach, in some cases, a considerable fraction of the total eddy energy.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics
- Pub Date:
- 1978
- DOI:
- 10.1080/03091927808242641
- Bibcode:
- 1978GApFD..10..275D