Rossby waves and two-dimensional turbulence in a large-scale zonal jet
Abstract
Homogeneous barotropic beta-plane turbulence is investigated, taking into account the effects of spatial inhomogeneity in the form of a zonal shear flows. Attention is given to the case of zonal flows that are barotropically stable and of larger scale than the resulting transient eddy field. Numerical simulations reveal that large-scale zonal flows alter the picture of classical beta-plane turbulence. It is found that the disturbance field penetrates to the largest scales of motion, that the larger disturbance scales show a tendency to meridional rather than zonal anisotropy, and that the initial spectral transfer rate away from an isotropic intermediate-scale source is enhanced by the shear-induced transfer associated with straining by the zonal flow.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Fluid Mechanics
- Pub Date:
- October 1987
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S0022112087002738
- Bibcode:
- 1987JFM...183..467S
- Keywords:
-
- Rossby Regimes;
- Turbulent Jets;
- Two Dimensional Flow;
- Zonal Flow (Meteorology);
- Atmospheric Turbulence;
- Energy Transfer;
- Flux Quantization;
- Isotropic Turbulence;
- Ray Tracing;
- Vortices;
- Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer