Prof. Peter Read

Abstract:

In this paper, we show that the behaviour of weakly nonlinear waves in a 2-layer model of baroclinic instability on an f-plane with varying viscosity is determined by a single, degenerate codimension three bifurcation. In the process, we show how previous studies, using the method of multiple scales to derive evolution equations for the slowly varying amplitude of the growing wave, arise as special limits of the general evolution description. A companion study will extend the results to a β-plane.

Abstract:

An analytical model, previously developed for investigating the propagation of equatorially-trapped waves on an equatorial beta-plane in a uniform zonal flow in the presence of Rayleigh friction and Newtonian cooling in the Earth's stratosphere, is applied to Jupiter's upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. By analogy with the Earth, a 'spectral window' is identified for each of the main classes of equatorial wave mode, suggesting a mode-selection criterion for the dominant modes observed in association with strong wave-zonal flow interactions in the stratosphere. The modes favoured by this approach are compared with recent observations of wave activity and the quasi-quadrennial oscillation (QQO) in Jupiter's tropical atmosphere. Two modes with zonal wavenumber k similar to 8-11 are identified which may correspond to: (i) an equatorial Rossby mode moving eastward at around 100 m s(-1): and (ii) a mixed Rossby-gravity mode which is similar to stationary in System III, apparently excited by a wave source moving with the zonal wind in the deep troposphere. A Kelvin mode is also predicted to be present, but observational evidence for this mode is lacking to date. A numerical model, capable of solving for wave structures and wave-zonal flow interactions in arbitrary zonal flows using a Hermite spectral method, is adapted to conditions in Jupiter's stratosphere. The latter numerical model is shown to successfully simulate a plausible QQO with a period around four Earth years, given a single pair of forced Kelvin and MRG modes with tropospheric amplitudes consistent with observations. This model demonstrates that the QQO may indeed result, at least in principle, from interactions of a small number of equatorially-trapped wave modes with the zonal flow in the stratosphere. The selection of wave modes taking part in this process is not unique, however, and the precise identification of the relevant modes from observations remains elusive. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

A series of numerical simulations of steady, thermally stratified flow of a Boussinesq, incompressible fluid in a rotating, cylindrical fluid annulus were carried out over ranges of spatial resolution, grid stretch, and rotation rate. A range of different numerical advection schemes were used for the representation of heat transport, including a conventional conservative second-order Eulerian scheme and three different variants of a semi-Lagrangian scheme used either for temperature advection alone, or for both thermal and momentum advection. The resulting simulations were compared both with each other, and with high precision measurements of velocity, temperature, and total heat transport in the laboratory. The performance of the semi-Lagrangian scheme was found to be quite strongly sensitive to the spatial interpolation algorithm. A basic tensor cubic scheme generally produced good simulations of steady 2D and 3D flows, although the somewhat more accurate tensor quintic scheme (which is, however, also significantly more expensive) appeared to offer some detectable improvements in accuracy and performance in some cases. A split cubic scheme (which is computationally cheaper but formally less accurate) gave generally poor results in practice and is not recommended. In all cases considered, both the fully Eulerian and most forms of the semi-Lagrangian schemes gave good quantitative agreement with the laboratory measurements when extrapolated to very high resolution. Some significant systematic errors in the simulated heat transport and zonal momentum were found with all schemes, however, when run at moderate (though by no means very low) resolution. The semi-Lagrangian schemes had a tendency to overestimate heat transport relative to the laboratory measurements compared with the Eulerian schemes, but the latter tended to overestimate zonal momentum relative to the laboratory flows compared with the fully semi-Lagrangian simulations.