Modulational instability of Rossby and drift waves and generation of zonal jets

DOI10.1017/S0022112010000510zbMATH Open1193.76059arXiv0905.2243MaRDI QIDQ3586975FDOQ3586975

Authors: Colm Connaughton, Balasubramanya T. Nadiga, Brenda Quinn, Sergey Nazarenko 

Publication date: 1 September 2010

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

Abstract: We study the modulational instability of geophysical Rossby and plasma drift waves within the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima (CHM) model both theoretically, using truncated (four-mode and three-mode) models, and numerically, using direct simulations of CHM equation in the Fourier space. The linear theory predicts instability for any amplitude of the primary wave. For strong primary waves the most unstable modes are perpendicular to the primary wave, which correspond to generation of a zonal flow if the primary wave is purely meridional. For weaker waves, the maximum growth occurs for off-zonal inclined modulations. For very weak primary waves the unstable waves are close to being in three-wave resonance with the primary wave. The nonlinear theory predicts that the zonal flows generated by the linear instability experience pinching into narrow zonal jets. Our numerical simulations confirm the theoretical predictions of the linear theory as well as of the nonlinear pinching. We find that, for strong primary waves, these narrow zonal jets further roll up into Karman-like vortex streets. On the other hand, for weak primary waves, the growth of the unstable mode reverses and the system oscillates between a dominant jet and a dominate primary wave. The 2D vortex streets appear to be more stable than purely 1D zonal jets, and their zonal-averaged speed can reach amplitudes much stronger than is allowed by the Rayleigh-Kuo instability criterion for the 1D case. We find that the truncation models work well for both the linear stage and and often even for the medium-term nonlinear behavior. In the long term, the system transitions to turbulence helped by the vortex-pairing instability (for strong waves) and by the resonant wave-wave interactions (for weak waves).

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0905.2243

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Stability and instability of geophysical and astrophysical flows (76E20) Hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic problems in astronomy and astrophysics (85A30) Meteorology and atmospheric physics (86A10)

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Cited In (20)

• Cascade generation of zonal flows by the drift wave turbulence
• Zonal flow generation by the stretching of Rossby modons
• Zonal jets at the laboratory scale: hysteresis and Rossby waves resonance
• Externally forced triads of resonantly interacting waves: boundedness and integrability properties
• On latency of multiple zonal jets in the oceans
• Structural stability theory of two-dimensional fluid flow under stochastic forcing
• Rossby waves and two-dimensional turbulence in a large-scale zonal jet
• Wave instability under short-wave amplitude modulations
• Zonal flow generation by modulational instability
• Modulations in the leading edges of midlatitude storm tracks
• Complete classification of discrete resonant Rossby/drift wave triads on periodic domains
• Is spontaneous generation of coherent baroclinic flows possible?
• Destabilization of mixed Rossby gravity waves and the formation of equatorial zonal jets
• Dynamics of zonally elongated transient flows
• On the generation of large-scale eddy-driven patterns: the average eddy model
• Lower bounds on zonal enstrophy
• A mechanism for jet drift over topography
• Dynamics of Rossby dipole with effect of scalar nonlinearity
• Rossby and drift wave turbulence and zonal flows: the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima model and its extensions
• Poleward propagation of near-inertial waves induced by fluctuating winds over a baroclinically unstable zonal jet

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