Numerical simulation of a self-similar cascade of filament instabilities in the surface quasigeostrophic system
Abstract
We provide numerical evidence for the existence of a cascade of filament instabilities in the surface quasigeostrophic system for rotating, stratified flow near a horizontal boundary. The cascade involves geometrically shrinking spatial and temporal scales and implies the singular collapse of the filament width to zero in a finite time. The numerical method is both spatially and temporally adaptive, permitting the accurate simulation of the evolution over an unprecedented range of spatial scales spanning over ten orders of magnitude. It provides the first convincing demonstration of the cascade, in which the large separation of scales between subsequent instabilities has made previous numerical simulation difficult.
Citation
Scott , R K & Dritschel , D G 2014 , ' Numerical simulation of a self-similar cascade of filament instabilities in the surface quasigeostrophic system ' , Physical Review Letters , vol. 112 , no. 14 , 144505 , pp. 1-5 . https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.144505
Publication
Physical Review Letters
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0031-9007Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2014 American Physical Society
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