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Gravity wave emission in an atmosphere-like configuration of the differentially heated rotating annulus experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2014

Sebastian Borchert ,
Ulrich Achatz  and
Mark D. Fruman
Sebastian Borchert*
Affiliation:
Institut für Atmosphäre und Umwelt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Altenhöferallee 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Ulrich Achatz
Affiliation:
Institut für Atmosphäre und Umwelt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Altenhöferallee 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Mark D. Fruman
Affiliation:
Institut für Atmosphäre und Umwelt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Altenhöferallee 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
*
†Email address for correspondence: borchert@iau.uni-frankfurt.de
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Abstract

A finite-volume model of the classic differentially heated rotating annulus experiment is used to study the spontaneous emission of gravity waves (GWs) from jet stream imbalances, which may be an important source of these waves in the atmosphere and for which no satisfactory parameterisation exists. Experiments were performed using a classic laboratory configuration as well as using a much wider and shallower annulus with a much larger temperature difference between the inner and outer cylinder walls. The latter configuration is more atmosphere-like, in particular since the Brunt–Väisälä frequency is larger than the inertial frequency, resulting in more realistic GW dispersion properties. In both experiments, the model is initialised with a baroclinically unstable axisymmetric state established using a two-dimensional version of the code, and a low-azimuthal-mode baroclinic wave featuring a meandering jet is allowed to develop. Possible regions of GW activity are identified by the horizontal velocity divergence and a modal decomposition of the small-scale structures of the flow. Results indicate GW activity in both annulus configurations close to the inner cylinder wall and within the baroclinic wave. The former is attributable to boundary layer instabilities, while the latter possibly originates in part from spontaneous GW emission from the baroclinic wave.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Baroclinic flows Geophysical and Geological Flows: Internal waves
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 758 , 10 November 2014 , pp. 287 - 311
Copyright
© 2014 Cambridge University Press 

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