A balanced approach to modelling rotating stably stratified geophysical flows
Abstract
We describe a new approach to modelling three-dimensional rotating stratified flows under the Boussinesq approximation. This approach is based on the explicit conservation of potential vorticity, and exploits the underlying leading-order geostrophic and hydrostratic balances inherent in these equations in the limit of small Froude and Rossby numbers. These balances are not imposed, but instead are used to motivate the use of a pair of new variables expressing the departure from geostrophic and hydrostratic balance. These new variables are the ageostrophic horizontal vorticity components, i.e. the vorticity not directly associated with the displacement of isopycnal surfaces. The use of potential vorticity and ageostrophic horizontal vorticity, rather than the usual primitive variables of velocity and density, reveals a deep mathematical structure and appears to have advantages numerically. This change of variables results in a diagnostic equation, of Monge-Amp re type, for one component of a vector potential phi, and two Poisson equations for the other two components. The curl of phi gives the velocity field while the divergence of phi is proportional to the displacement of isopycnal surfaces. This diagnostic equation makes transparent the conditions for both static and inertial stability, and may change form from (spatially) elliptic to (spatially) hyperbolic even when the flow is statically and inertially stable. A numerical method based on these new variables is developed and used to examine the instability of a horizontal elliptical shear zone (modelling a jet streak). The basic-state flow is in exact geostrophic and hydrostratic balance. Given a small perturbation however, the shear zone destabilizes by rolling up into a street of vortices and radiating inertia-gravity waves.
Citation
Dritschel , D G & Viúdez , A 2003 , ' A balanced approach to modelling rotating stably stratified geophysical flows ' , Journal of Fluid Mechanics , vol. 488 , pp. 123-150 . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112003004920
Publication
Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0022-1120Type
Journal article
Rights
(c)2003 Cambridge University Press
Description
This work was the first to show how one can rewrite the equations for a rotating stratified fluid in a way which makes potential vorticity conservation explicit. Potential vorticity is linked closely to balance, a state void of high-frequency gravity waves. The mathematical transformation reveals a deep underlying mathematical structure, including explicit conditions for inertial and static stability as well as a new double Monge-Ampere equation. This work forms the cornerstone of much subsequent research into the fundamental nature of rotating stratified fluids.Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.