Energetics of geostrophic adjustment in rotating flow

Abstract

Energetics of geostrophic adjustment in rotating flow is examined in detail with a linear shallow water model. The initial unbalanced flow considered first falls tinder two classes. The first is similar to that adopted by Gill and is here referred to as a mass imbalance model, for the flow is initially motionless but with a sea surface displacement. The other is the same as that considered by Rossby and is referred to as a momentum imbalance model since there is only a velocity perturbation in the initial field. The significant feature of the energetics of geostrophic adjustment for the above two extreme models is that although the energy conversion ratio has a large case-to-case variability for different initial conditions, its value is bounded below by 0 and above by 1 / 2. Based on the discussion of the above extreme models, the energetics of adjustment for an arbitrary initial condition is investigated. It is found that the characteristics of the energetics of geostrophic adjustment mentioned above are also applicable to adjustment of the general unbalanced flow under the condition that the energy conversion ratio is redefined as the conversion ratio between the change of kinetic energy and potential energy of the deviational fields.