Progress towards a diffusion theory of wave energy transport in large irregular structures

2006 ◽  
Vol 119 (5) ◽  
pp. 3391-3391
Author(s):  
Richard Weaver ◽  
Nicholas Wolff
2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 1509-1529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaos A. Bakas ◽  
Petros J. Ioannou

Abstract In this paper, the emission of internal gravity waves from a local westerly shear layer is studied. Thermal and/or vorticity forcing of the shear layer with a wide range of frequencies and scales can lead to strong emission of gravity waves in the region exterior to the shear layer. The shear flow not only passively filters and refracts the emitted wave spectrum, but also actively participates in the gravity wave emission in conjunction with the distributed forcing. This interaction leads to enhanced radiated momentum fluxes but more importantly to enhanced gravity wave energy fluxes. This enhanced emission power can be traced to the nonnormal growth of the perturbations in the shear region, that is, to the transfer of the kinetic energy of the mean shear flow to the emitted gravity waves. The emitted wave energy flux increases with shear and can become as large as 30 times greater than the corresponding flux emitted in the absence of a localized shear region. Waves that have horizontal wavelengths larger than the depth of the shear layer radiate easterly momentum away, whereas the shorter waves are trapped in the shear region and deposit their momentum at their critical levels. The observed spectrum, as well as the physical mechanisms influencing the spectrum such as wave interference and Doppler shifting effects, is discussed. While for large Richardson numbers there is equipartition of momentum among a wide range of frequencies, most of the energy is found to be carried by waves having vertical wavelengths in a narrow band around the value of twice the depth of the region. It is shown that the waves that are emitted from the shear region have vertical wavelengths of the size of the shear region.


2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 827-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. M. Uritsky ◽  
A. J. Klimas

Abstract. Magnetospheric dynamics is a complex multiscale process whose statistical features can be successfully reproduced using high-dimensional numerical transport models exhibiting the phenomenon of self-organized criticality (SOC). Along this line of research, a 2-dimensional driven current sheet (DCS) model has recently been developed that incorporates an idealized current-driven instability with a resistive MHD plasma system (Klimas et al., 2004a, b). The dynamics of the DCS model is dominated by the scale-free diffusive energy transport characterized by a set of broadband power-law distribution functions similar to those governing the evolution of multiscale precipitation regions of energetic particles in the nighttime sector of aurora (Uritsky et al., 2002b). The scale-free DCS behavior is supported by localized current-driven instabilities that can communicate in an avalanche fashion over arbitrarily long distances thus producing current sheet waves (CSW). In this paper, we derive the analytical expression for CSW speed as a function of plasma parameters controlling local anomalous resistivity dynamics. The obtained relation indicates that the CSW propagation requires sufficiently high initial current densities, and predicts a deceleration of CSWs moving from inner plasma sheet regions toward its northern and southern boundaries. We also show that the shape of time-averaged current density profile in the DCS model is in agreement with steady-state spatial configuration of critical avalanching models as described by the singular diffusion theory of the SOC. Over shorter time scales, SOC dynamics is associated with rather complex spatial patterns and, in particular, can produce bifurcated current sheets often seen in multi-satellite observations.


1991 ◽  
Vol 89 (4B) ◽  
pp. 1971-1971
Author(s):  
Charles E. Bradley ◽  
David T. Blackstock

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2901-2914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Herman ◽  
Sukun Cheng ◽  
Hayley H. Shen

Abstract. This work analyses laboratory observations of wave energy attenuation in fragmented sea ice cover composed of interacting, colliding floes. The experiment, performed in a large (72 m long) ice tank, includes several groups of tests in which regular, unidirectional, small-amplitude waves of different periods were run through floating ice with different floe sizes. The vertical deflection of the ice was measured at several locations along the tank, and video recording was used to document the overall ice behaviour, including the presence of collisions and overwash of the ice surface. The observational data are analysed in combination with the results of two types of models: a model of wave scattering by a series of floating elastic plates, based on the matched eigenfunction expansion method (MEEM), and a coupled wave–ice model, based on discrete-element model (DEM) of sea ice and a wave model solving the stationary energy transport equation with two source terms, describing dissipation due to ice–water drag and due to overwash. The observed attenuation rates are significantly larger than those predicted by the MEEM model, indicating substantial contribution from dissipative processes. Moreover, the dissipation is frequency dependent, although, as we demonstrate in the example of two alternative theoretical attenuation curves, the quantitative nature of that dependence is difficult to determine and very sensitive to assumptions underlying the analysis. Similarly, more than one combination of the parameters of the coupled DEM–wave model (restitution coefficient, drag coefficient and overwash criteria) produce spatial attenuation patterns in good agreement with observed ones over a range of wave periods and floe sizes, making selection of “optimal” model settings difficult. The results demonstrate that experiments aimed at identifying dissipative processes accompanying wave propagation in sea ice and quantifying the contribution of those processes to the overall attenuation require simultaneous measurements of many processes over possibly large spatial domains.


2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (12) ◽  
pp. 1495-1510 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. M. Walker

Abstract. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves in the solar wind and magnetosphere are propagated in a medium whose velocity is comparable to or greater than the wave velocity and which varies in both space and time. In the approximation where the scales of the time and space variation are long compared with the period and wavelength, the ray-tracing equations can be generalized and then include an additional first-order differential equation that determines the variation of frequency. In such circumstances the wave can exchange energy with the background: wave energy is not conserved. In such processes the wave action theorem shows that the wave action, defined as the ratio of the wave energy to the frequency in the local rest frame, is conserved. In this paper we discuss ray-tracing techniques and the energy exchange relation for MHD waves. We then provide a unified account of how to deal with energy transport by MHD waves in non-uniform media. The wave action theorem is derived directly from the basic MHD equations for sound waves, transverse Alfvén waves, and the fast and slow magnetosonic waves. The techniques described are applied to a number of illustrative cases. These include a sound wave in a medium undergoing a uniform compression, an isotropic Alfvén wave in a steady-state shear layer, and a transverse Alfvén wave in a simple model of the magnetotail undergoing compression. In each case the nature and magnitude of the energy exchange between wave and background is found.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoit Tallon ◽  
Philippe Roux ◽  
Guillaume Matte ◽  
Jean Guillard ◽  
John H. Page ◽  
...  

AbstractA dramatic slowing down of acoustic wave transport in dense fish shoals is observed in open-sea fish cages. By employing a multi-beam ultrasonic antenna, we observe the coherent backscattering phenomenon. We extract key parameters of wave transport such as the transport mean free path and the energy transport velocity of diffusive waves from diffusion theory fits to the experimental data. The energy transport velocity is found to be about 10 times smaller than the speed of sound in water, a value that is exceptionally low compared with most observations in acoustics. By studying different models of the fish body, we explain the basic mechanism responsible for the observed very slow transport of ultrasonic waves in dense fish shoals. Our results show that, while the fish swim bladder plays an important role in wave scattering, other organs have to be considered to explain ultra-low energy transport velocities.


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