3D Effects in the Formation of Zonal Jets Through Inverse Cascade

Details 3D Effects in the Formation of Zonal Jets Through Inverse Cascade 3D Effects in the Formation of Zonal Jets Through Inverse Cascade

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.0206s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #02.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.484

Physics

Fluid Dynamics

Scientific paper

The atmospheric zonal jets on Jupiter and Saturn are characterized by the broad, prograde, equatorial jet and the narrower, higher-latitude jets that alternate between prograde and retrograde. The question of what controls the widths and directions of those jets remains a major unsolved problem in geophysical fluid dynamics. Past studies have shown that, in shallow flows on a rotating sphere, small random vortices can undergo inverse cascade to form zonal jets with a characteristic width called the Rhines scale. Most of the studies to date use 2D non-divergent or shallow-water models in studying this zonal jet formation mechanism. However, in the parameter ranges representative of the Jovian conditions, the flows produced by 2D non-divergent models are typically dominated by strong circumpolar jets, and the shallow-water models produce a robust retrograde equatorial jet. These models' apparent inabilities in reproducing some key Jovian jet features may suggest the importance of 3D effects in controlling the jets' large-scale horizontal structures.
To date, Kitamura and Matsuda (Fluid Dynamics Research, 34, 33-57, 2004) is the only published study that analyzes the 3D effects in the zonalization of fine-scale random turbulence through the inverse cascade. Their two-layer primitive equation simulations of free-evolving flows resulted in circumpolar jet dominated flows, although slower mid-latitude jets are also present. Our study is a significant extension over that by Kitamura and Matsuda and includes substantially more layers to study the zonalization process to more fully resolve relevant 3D effects in the inverse cascade. We test the flow behavior's dependence on the deformation radius and the resulting vertical structures in both spherical and beta-plane geometries. Our study uses the Explicit Planetary Isentropic Coordinate (EPIC) model (Dowling et al, Icarus, 32, 221-238., 1998). The research is supported by a NASA Planetary Atmospheres grant to APS.

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