The propagation and decay of a coastal vortex on a shelf

DOI10.1017/JFM.2021.790MaRDI QIDQ5157316zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors

Publication date 13 October 2021

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.04806

zbMATH Keywords

asymptotic expansionrotating fluidsmall parametertopographic effecttrapped shelf wave modelvortex dynamicswave energy balancewave wake

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Water waves, gravity waves; dispersion and scattering, nonlinear interaction (76B15) Vortex flows for incompressible inviscid fluids (76B47) Asymptotic methods, singular perturbations applied to problems in fluid mechanics (76M45) Geophysical flows (76U60) Hydrology, hydrography, oceanography (86A05)

Abstract: A coastal eddy is modelled as a barotropic vortex propagating along a coastal shelf. If the vortex speed matches the phase speed of any coastal trapped shelf wave modes, a shelf wave wake is generated leading to a flux of energy from the vortex into the wave field. Using a simply shelf geometry, we determine analytic expressions for the wave wake and the leading order flux of wave energy. By considering the balance of energy between the vortex and wave field, this energy flux is then used to make analytic predictions for the evolution of the vortex speed and radius under the assumption that the vortex structure remains self similar. These predictions are examined in the asymptotic limit of small rotation rate and shelf slope and tested against numerical simulations. If the vortex speed does not match the phase speed of any shelf wave, steady vortex solutions are expected to exist. We present a numerical approach for finding these nonlinear solutions and examine the parameter dependence of their structure.

Recommendations

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Cites work

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Cited in

(8)

• A coastal ocean intercomparison study for a three-dimensional idealised test case
• A point vortex model for the formation of ocean eddies by flow separation
• Rotating flows along indented coastlines
• The decay of cyclonic eddies by Rossby wave radiation
• Stable and unstable barotropic shelf waves in a coastal current
• Dynamics of ventilated coherent cold eddies on a sloping bottom
• Oceanic dipoles in a surface quasi-geostrophic model
• The evolution of surface quasi-geostrophic modons on sloping topography

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