Inertia-gravity-wave scattering by three-dimensional geostrophic turbulence

DOI10.1017/JFM.2021.205zbMATH Open1485.76020arXiv2008.02203OpenAlexW3147815552MaRDI QIDQ3389307FDOQ3389307

Authors: Miles A. C. Savva, Hossein Amini Kafiabad, J. Vanneste 

Publication date: 10 May 2021

Published in: Journal of Fluid Mechanics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In rotating stratified flows including in the atmosphere and ocean, inertia-gravity waves (IGWs) often coexist with a geostrophically balanced turbulent flow. Advection and refraction by this flow lead to wave scattering, redistributing IGW energy in the position--wavenumber phase space. We give a detailed description of this process by deriving a kinetic equation governing the evolution of the IGW phase-space energy density. The derivation relies on the smallness of the Rossby number characterising the geostrophic flow, which is treated as a random field with known statistics, and makes no assumption of spatial scale separation. The kinetic equation describes energy transfers that are restricted to IGWs with the same frequency, as a result of the timescale separation between waves and flow. We formulate the kinetic equation on the constant-frequency surface -- a double cone in wavenumber space -- using polar spherical coordinates, and we examine the form of the two scattering cross sections involved, which quantify energy transfers between IGWs with, respectively, the same and opposite directions of vertical propagation. The kinetic equation captures both the horizontal isotropisation and the cascade of energy across scales that result from scattering. We focus our attention on the latter to assess the predictions of the kinetic equation against direct simulations of the three-dimensional Boussinesq equations, finding good agreement.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.02203

Recommendations

• Inertia-gravity waves and geostrophic turbulence
• Diffusion of inertia-gravity waves by geostrophic turbulence
• Inertia-gravity-wave diffusion by geostrophic turbulence: the impact of flow time dependence
• Geophysical turbulence dominated by inertia-gravity waves
• Near-inertial wave dispersion by geostrophic flows
• Nonlinear inertia-gravity wave-mode interactions in three dimensional rotating stratified flows
• Variational treatment of inertia-gravity waves interacting with a quasi-geostrophic mean flow
• Inertial waves in rotating grid turbulence
• Spontaneous inertia-gravity-wave generation by surface-intensified turbulence

zbMATH Keywords

direct numerical simulationpseudospectral methodinternal waverotating oceanthird-order Adams-Bashforth scheme

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Finite difference methods applied to problems in fluid mechanics (76M20) Spectral methods applied to problems in fluid mechanics (76M22) Water waves, gravity waves; dispersion and scattering, nonlinear interaction (76B15) Internal waves for incompressible inviscid fluids (76B55) Direct numerical and large eddy simulation of turbulence (76F65) Geophysical flows (76U60)

Cites Work

• Transport equations for elastic and other waves in random media
• Balance and Spontaneous Wave Generation in Geophysical Flows
• An exact theory of nonlinear waves on a Lagrangian-mean flow
• Waves and mean flows
• Kinetic limits for waves in a random medium
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Transport equations for waves in randomly perturbed Hamiltonian systems, with application to Rossby waves
• On wave action and phase in the non–canonical Hamiltonian formulation
• Diffusion of inertia-gravity waves by geostrophic turbulence
• Internal wave—vortical mode interactions in strongly stratified flows
• Balance dynamics in rotating stratified turbulence
• Ocean dynamics.
• Geometric generalised Lagrangian-mean theories
• The transition from geostrophic to stratified turbulence
• Available potential vorticity and wave-averaged quasi-geostrophic flow
• Scattering of gravity waves by potential vorticity in a shallow-water fluid
• Wave-vortex decomposition of one-dimensional ship-track data
• On the diffusion of momentum and mass by internal gravity waves
• Frequency diffusion of waves by unsteady flows
• Scattering of internal tides by barotropic quasigeostrophic flows
• Spontaneous imbalance in the non-hydrostatic Boussinesq equations
• An asymptotic model for the propagation of oceanic internal tides through quasi-geostrophic flow
• Quasi-local method of wave decomposition in a slowly varying medium
• Anisotropic Helmholtz and wave–vortex decomposition of one-dimensional spectra
• Wave-averaged balance: a simple example

Cited In (13)

• Inertia-gravity waves and geostrophic turbulence
• Diffusion of inertia-gravity waves by geostrophic turbulence
• Altimeter observations of baroclinic oceanic intertia–gravity wave turbulence
• Interactions of internal tides with a heterogeneous and rotational ocean
• Supply mechanisms of the geostrophic mode in rotating turbulence: interactions with self, waves and eddies
• Dynamical large deviations for an inhomogeneous wave kinetic theory: linear wave scattering by a random medium
• Scattering of gravity waves by potential vorticity in a shallow-water fluid
• Energy cascade in the Garrett–Munk spectrum of internal gravity waves
• Wave scattering by an isolated cyclogeostrophic vortex
• Multiscale wave-turbulence dynamics in the atmosphere and ocean. Abstracts from the workshop held September 18--24, 2022
• Inertia-gravity-wave diffusion by geostrophic turbulence: the impact of flow time dependence
• The turbulent cascade of inertia-gravity waves in rotating shallow water
• Scattering of internal tides by barotropic quasigeostrophic flows

This page was built for publication: Inertia-gravity-wave scattering by three-dimensional geostrophic turbulence

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q3389307)