Forced two layer beta-plane quasigeostrophic flow. I: Long-time existence and uniqueness of weak solutions (Q2496826)

A model of quasigeostrophic turbulence that has proven useful in theoretical studies of large scale heat transport and coherent structure formation in planetary atmospheres and oceans are considered. The model consists of a coupled pair of hyperbolic PDEs with a forcing which represents domain-scale thermal energy source. Although the use to which the model is typically put involves gathering information from very long numerical integrations, little of a rigorous nature is known about long-time properties of solutions to the equations. A notion of weak solution is defined, and using Galerkin methods the long-time existence and uniqueness of such solutions is showed.