The vortex gas scaling regime of baroclinic turbulence.

ABSTRACT: The mean state of the atmosphere and ocean is set through a balance between external forcing (radiation, winds, heat and freshwater fluxes) and the emergent turbulence, which transfers energy to dissipative structures. The forcing gives rise to jets in the atmosphere and currents in the ocean, which spontaneously develop turbulent eddies through the baroclinic instability. A critical step in the development of a theory of climate is to properly include the eddy-induced turbulent transport of properties like heat, moisture, and carbon. In the linear stages, baroclinic instability generates flow structures at the Rossby deformation radius, a length scale of order 1,000 km in the atmosphere and 100 km in the ocean, smaller than the planetary scale and the typical extent of ocean basins, respe

SUBMITTER: Gallet B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7060697 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature