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On the spacing of meandering jets in the strong-stair limit

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Scott_2021_On_the_spacing_JFM_AAM.pdf (2.239Mb)
Date
10/01/2022
Author
Scott, R. K.
Burgess, B. H.
Dritschel, D. G.
Funder
The Leverhulme Trust
Grant ID
ECF-2017-508
Keywords
Geostrophic turbulence
Quasi-geostrophic flows
QA Mathematics
QC Physics
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanics of Materials
Condensed Matter Physics
T-NDAS
AC
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Abstract
Based on an assumption of strongly inhomogeneous potential vorticity mixing in quasi-geostrophic -plane turbulence, a relation is obtained between the mean spacing of latitudinally meandering zonal jets and the total kinetic energy of the flow. The relation applies to cases where the Rossby deformation length is much smaller than the Rhines scale, in which kinetic energy is concentrated within the jet cores. The relation can be theoretically achieved in the case of perfect mixing between regularly spaced jets with simple meanders, and of negligible kinetic energy in flow structures other than in jets. Incomplete mixing or unevenly spaced jets will result in jets being more widely separated than the estimate, while significant kinetic energy outside the jets will result in jets closer than the estimate. An additional relation, valid under the same assumptions, is obtained between the total kinetic and potential energies. In flows with large-scale dissipation, the two relations provide a means to predict the jet spacing based only on knowledge of the energy input rate of the forcing and dissipation rate, regardless of whether the latter takes the form of frictional or thermal damping. Comparison with direct numerical integrations of the forced system shows broad support for the relations, but differences between the actual and predicted jet spacings arise both from the complex structure of jet meanders and the non-negligible kinetic energy contained in the turbulent background and in coherent vortices lying between the jets.
Citation
Scott , R K , Burgess , B H & Dritschel , D G 2022 , ' On the spacing of meandering jets in the strong-stair limit ' , Journal of Fluid Mechanics , vol. 930 , A20 . https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.898
Publication
Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.898
ISSN
0022-1120
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.898.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/25352

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