Near-resonant instability of geostrophic modes: beyond Greenspan's theorem

DOI10.1017/JFM.2020.454MaRDI QIDQ5115602zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Thomas le Reun, Basile Gallet, B. Favier, Michael Le Bars

Publication date 17 August 2020

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

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12425

zbMATH Keywords

rotating flowswaves in rotating fluids

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Internal waves for incompressible inviscid fluids (76B55) Turbulence (76F99) General theory of rotating fluids (76U05)

Abstract: We explore the near-resonant interaction of inertial waves with geostrophic modes in rotating fluids via numerical and theoretical analysis. When a single inertial wave is imposed, we find that some geostrophic modes are unstable above a threshold value of the Rossby number $kRo$ based on the wavenumber and wave amplitude. We show this instability to be caused by triadic interaction involving two inertial waves and a geostrophic mode such that the sum of their eigen frequencies is non-zero. We derive theoretical scalings for the growth rate of this near-resonant instability. The growth rate scaled by the global rotation rate is proportional to $(kRo{)}^2$ at low $kRo$ and transitions to a $kRo$ scaling for larger $kRo$. These scalings are in excellent agreement with direct numerical simulations. This instability could explain recent experimental observations of geostrophic instability driven by waves.

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Cited in

(7)

• Mean zonal flows induced by weak mechanical forcings in rotating spheroids
• Onset of three-dimensionality in rapidly rotating turbulent flows
• Precession-driven flows in stress-free ellipsoids
• Supply mechanisms of the geostrophic mode in rotating turbulence: interactions with self, waves and eddies
• A multiple time scale approach for anisotropic inertial wave turbulence
• Mean flow generation via non-resonant interactions in two-dimensional forced stratified turbulence
• Nonlinear inertia-gravity wave-mode interactions in three dimensional rotating stratified flows

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