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Hadley and Rossby regimes in a simple model of convection of a rotating fluid

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the properties of solutions to the equations describing the motion of a stratified fluid in the class of velocity and temperature fields linear in coordinates. For an ideal fluid, these equations, on the one hand, are exact for the corresponding hydrodynamic problem and, on the other hand, are identical to the equations of motion for a heavy top. In a conservative case, the equations of motion of a top share common solutions with the equations of geophysical fluid dynamics and reproduce motions similar to those existing in the theory of the large-scale atmospheric circulation. This study considers the effects of viscosity and heat conduction in the fluid, which are, in a sense, similar to the effect of friction in the case of a top. The influence of deflections of the vectors of gravity and external rotation from their standard directions for a plane-parallel atmosphere is also considered. The regimes of motions that are described by the starting equations and approximations commonly used to model the atmospheric general circulation (the quasi-geostrophic approximation) are analyzed. It is shown that these equations correctly describe the Hadley and Rossby circulation regimes and transitions between them that are observed in numerical and laboratory experiments. Particular attention is given to the consistency between different regimes of the exact equations and their quasi-geostrophic approximations, which is manifested for small Rossby numbers and is generally absent for large Rossby numbers. The asymptotic behaviors of the curves of transition between the Hadley and Rossby regimes under the conditions of breaking the external symmetry of flows are obtained. These asymptotics explain the corresponding transition boundaries for the regimes observed in the known experiments in annuluses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oboukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevskii per. 3, Moscow, 119017, Russia

    A. E. Gledzer, E. B. Gledzer, F. V. Dolzhanskii & V. M. Ponomarev

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  1. A. E. Gledzer
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  2. E. B. Gledzer
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  3. F. V. Dolzhanskii
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  4. V. M. Ponomarev
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Original Russian Text © A.E. Gledzer, E.B. Gledzer, F.V. Dolzhanskii, V.M. Ponomarev, 2006, published in Izvestiya AN. Fizika Atmosfery i Okeana, 2006, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 435–459.

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Gledzer, A.E., Gledzer, E.B., Dolzhanskii, F.V. et al. Hadley and Rossby regimes in a simple model of convection of a rotating fluid. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 42, 399–422 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433806040013

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433806040013

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