Temperature and velocity field regimes of convective motions in a rotating plane fluid layer

Pursuant to the work of Boubnov and Golitsyn (1986), new measurements of temperature and velocity field patterns and their statistical characteristics are presently treated in order to classify convection regimes on a plane rotating horizontal fluid layer in terms of their Rayleigh and Taylor numbers. Geostrophic convection with Rossby number much lower than unity is noted within irregular regimes; in these, the temperature variance depends on rotation rate and heat flux, and is inversely proportional to the buoyancy parameter. Measurements of the horizontal and vertical components of the velocity regimes for both regular and irregular regimes confirms Golitsyn's (1980) theoretical results for geostrophic convection.