Lagrangian transport in geophysical jets and waves. The dynamical systems approach (Q850670)

The purpose of the monograph is to explore some of the new insights into Lagrangian motion in geophysical flows followed from such approach and to present an accessible introduction to the basic elements of some of these methods. Such approach is primarily appropriate for strongly inhomogeneous flows with long-lived coherent structures and the authors focus here on a particular set of such flows with special geophysical significance: the closely related phenomena of meandering jets and traveling waves. The introductory three chapters give the basic concepts of dynamical systems theory and some important topics of Hamiltonian systems in geophysical context. In Chapter 4 time-dependent generalizations of the saddle-point class of flows are considered. A specific type of distinguished trajectory is identified, that plays a fundamental role in the analysis of the Lagrangian motion in the time-dependent traveling-wave flow. While the KAM theory applies only for temporally periodic or quasiperiodic near-integrable flows, the considered here time-dependence is not similarly restricted, and the flows need not be nearly steady or integrable. In Chapters 5 and 6 it is shown how transport and exchange between flow regimes in time-dependent flows can be understood and quantified by analyzing the structure of the material manifolds of hyperbolic trajectories. The transport by a steadily translating nonlinear wave of fuid enclosed by a closed streamline in a reference frame moving with the wave is one of the basic concepts in fluid mechanics. The generalization of this concept to time-dependent perturbations of the traveling wave leads to the consideration of the stable and unstable material manifolds described in these chapters. In Chapter 6 the quantitative analysis is carried out for more complex comparatively to Chapter 5 disturbances with general, oscillatory time-dependence. A method is developed extending and generalizing this approach. Thus the fundamental elements and methods of Lagrangian transport analysis in time-dependent flows of geophysical fluid dynamics are the main subject of the reviewed monograph. The material of Chapter 7 presents a brief overview of few examples from the evolving range of studies in geophysical fluid dynamics that make use of the conceptual approach of the Chapters 4-6. Auxiliary material is carried out in the Appendices. The monograph will be useful for applied mathematicians, especially working in geophysical fluid dynamics.