Laboratory simulation of the stability loss of periodic zonal flows

Kolmogoroff flow was simulated by the MHD excitation of electrolyte motion in an effort to model large-scale zonal flows in planetary atmospheres (e.g., of the earth and Jupiter). A change in the experimental design which approximated the experiment to an idealized mathematical model disclosed a second Landau-Hopf bifurcation in the Kolmogoroff flow, which might clarify the mechanism for the excitation of oscillations of zonal circulation (the index cycle). It is concluded that the theory of self-oscillations in Kolmogoroff flow can apparently be developed by analogy with the theory of oscillation processes in a four-vortex system.