Large-scale Rossby waves in the Antarctic stratosphere

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
A.V. Agapitov ◽  
◽  
A.V. Grytsai ◽  
D.A. Salyuk ◽  
◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasiia Frolova ◽  
Tatyana Belonenko

<p>Rossby waves in the ocean play a crucial role in large-scale ocean circulation and global climate. However, the interaction of Rossby waves with large-scale currents in the ocean is still a relatively little studied issue. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the largest ocean current in the World Ocean. The ACC is a waveguide for Rossby waves where wave kinetic energy is captured by jets, and where Rossby waves interact with the flow. The purpose of this research is to analyze a manifestation of Rossby waves in the ACC based on satellite altimetry data. We propose a new approach to determining the boundaries of the waveguide. We analyze the variability of sea level anomalies and examine the latitude where the zonal velocity of Rossby waves is zero. For calculating Rossby waves velocities we use Radon and cross-correlation methods. We detect the Northern and the Southern Waveguide Boundaries for the ACC and compare them to the climatological fronts in the ACC. The linear theory of Rossby waves doesn’t work within the waveguide due to that we should consider nonlinear in the long-wave approximation. It follows from the theory of shallow water that nonlinearity in the long-wave approximation compensates exactly for the Doppler shift. The nonlinear dispersion equation agrees well with altimetry data.</p><p>The investigation is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant (17-05-00034).</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 217 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. V. Zaqarashvili ◽  
M. Albekioni ◽  
J. L. Ballester ◽  
Y. Bekki ◽  
L. Biancofiore ◽  
...  

AbstractRossby waves are a pervasive feature of the large-scale motions of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. These waves (also known as planetary waves and r-modes) also play an important role in the large-scale dynamics of different astrophysical objects such as the solar atmosphere and interior, astrophysical discs, rapidly rotating stars, planetary and exoplanetary atmospheres. This paper provides a review of theoretical and observational aspects of Rossby waves on different spatial and temporal scales in various astrophysical settings. The physical role played by Rossby-type waves and associated instabilities is discussed in the context of solar and stellar magnetic activity, angular momentum transport in astrophysical discs, planet formation, and other astrophysical processes. Possible directions of future research in theoretical and observational aspects of astrophysical Rossby waves are outlined.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikos Bakas

<p>Forced-dissipative beta-plane turbulence in a single-layer shallow-water fluid has been widely considered as a simplified model of planetary turbulence as it exhibits turbulence self-organization into large-scale structures such as robust zonal jets and strong vortices. In this study we perform a series of numerical simulations to analyze the characteristics of the emerging structures as a function of the planetary vorticity gradient and the deformation radius. We report four regimes that appear as the energy input rate ε of the random stirring that supports turbulence in the flow increases. A homogeneous turbulent regime for low values of ε, a regime in which large scale Rossby waves form abruptly when ε passes a critical value, a regime in which robust zonal jets coexist with weaker Rossby waves when ε passes a second critical value and a regime of strong materially coherent propagating vortices for large values of ε. The wave regime which is not predicted by standard cascade theories of turbulence anisotropization and the vortex regime are studied thoroughly. Wavenumber-frequency spectra analysis shows that the Rossby waves in the second regime remain phase coherent over long times. The coherent vortices are identified using the Lagrangian Averaged Deviation (LAVD) method. The statistics of the vortices (lifetime, radius, strength and speed) are reported as a function of the large scale parameters. We find that the strong vortices propagate zonally with a phase speed that is equal or larger than the long Rossby wave speed and advect the background turbulence leading to a non-dispersive line in the wavenumber-frequency spectra.</p>


Author(s):  
QI QUAN ◽  
ZHONGYA CAI ◽  
GUANGZHEN JIN ◽  
ZHIQIANG LIU

AbstractTopographic Rossby waves (TRWs) in the abyssal South China Sea (SCS) are investigated using observations and high-resolution numerical simulations. These energetic waves can account for over 40% of the kinetic energy (KE) variability in the deep western boundary current and seamount region in the central SCS. This proportion can even reach 70% over slopes in the northern and southern SCS. The TRW-induced currents exhibit columnar (i.e., in-phase) structure in which the speed increases downward. Wave properties such as the period (5–60 days), wavelength (100–500 km), and vertical trapping scale (102–103 m) vary significantly depending on environmental parameters of the SCS. The TRW energy propagates along steep topography with phase propagation offshore. TRWs with high frequencies exhibit a stronger climbing effect than low-frequency ones and hence can move further upslope. For TRWs with a certain frequency, the wavelength and trapping scale are dominated by the topographic beta, whereas the group velocity is more sensitive to the internal Rossby deformation radius. Background circulation with horizontal shear can change the wavelength and direction of TRWs if the flow velocity is comparable to the group velocity, particularly in the central, southern, and eastern SCS. A case study suggests two possible energy sources for TRWs: mesoscale perturbation in the upper layer and large-scale background circulation in the deep layer. The former provides KE by pressure work, whereas the latter transfers the available potential energy (APE) through baroclinic instability.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 170147 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. Biersma ◽  
J. A. Jackson ◽  
J. Hyvönen ◽  
S. Koskinen ◽  
K. Linse ◽  
...  

A bipolar disjunction is an extreme, yet common, biogeographic pattern in non-vascular plants, yet its underlying mechanisms (vicariance or long-distance dispersal), origin and timing remain poorly understood. Here, combining a large-scale population dataset and multiple dating analyses, we examine the biogeography of four bipolar Polytrichales mosses, common to the Holarctic (temperate and polar Northern Hemisphere regions) and the Antarctic region (Antarctic, sub-Antarctic, southern South America) and other Southern Hemisphere (SH) regions. Our data reveal contrasting patterns, for three species were of Holarctic origin, with subsequent dispersal to the SH, while one, currently a particularly common species in the Holarctic ( Polytrichum juniperinum ), diversified in the Antarctic region and from here colonized both the Holarctic and other SH regions. Our findings suggest long-distance dispersal as the driver of bipolar disjunctions. We find such inter-hemispheric dispersals are rare, occurring on multi-million-year timescales. High-altitude tropical populations did not act as trans-equatorial ‘stepping-stones’, but rather were derived from later dispersal events. All arrivals to the Antarctic region occurred well before the Last Glacial Maximum and previous glaciations, suggesting that, despite the harsh climate during these past glacial maxima, plants have had a much longer presence in this southern region than previously thought.


1992 ◽  
Vol 338 (1285) ◽  
pp. 219-226 ◽  

Although stratospheric ozone loss had been predicted for m any years, the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole was a surprise which necessitated a major rethink in theories of stratospheric chemistry. The new ideas advanced are discussed here. Global ozone loss has now also been reported after careful analysis of satellite and groundbased data sets. The possible causes of this loss are considered. Further advances require a careful coordination of field measurements and large-scale numerical modelling.


2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 3312-3327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Semion Sukoriansky ◽  
Nadejda Dikovskaya ◽  
Boris Galperin

Abstract The notion of the cascade arrest in a β-plane turbulence in the context of continuously forced flows is revised in this paper using both theoretical analysis and numerical simulations. It is demonstrated that the upscale energy propagation cannot be stopped by a β effect and can only be absorbed by friction. A fundamental dimensional parameter in flows with a β effect, the Rhines scale, LR, has traditionally been associated with the cascade arrest or with the scale that separates turbulence and Rossby wave–dominated spectral ranges. It is shown that rather than being a measure of the inverse cascade arrest, LR is a characteristic of different processes in different flow regimes. In unsteady flows, LR can be identified with the moving energy front propagating toward the decreasing wavenumbers. When large-scale energy sink is present, β-plane turbulence may attain several steady-state regimes. Two of these regimes are highlighted: friction-dominated and zonostrophic. In the former, LR does not have any particular significance, while in the latter, the Rhines scale nearly coincides with the characteristic length associated with the large-scale friction. Spectral analysis in the frequency domain demonstrates that Rossby waves coexist with turbulence on scales smaller than LR thus indicating that the Rhines scale cannot be viewed as a crossover between turbulence and Rossby wave ranges.


Author(s):  
Theodore G. Shepherd

The chapter begins with a phenomenological treatment of the observed atmospheric circulation. It then goes on to discuss how the barotropic model arises as a so-calledbalanced model of the slow, vorticity-driven dynamics, from the more general shallowwater model which also admits inertia-gravity waves. This is important because large-scale atmospheric turbulence exhibits aspects of both balanced and unbalanced dynamics. Because of the first-order importance of zonal flows in the atmospheric general circulation, the large-scale turbulence is highly inhomogeneous, and is shaped by the nature of the interaction between zonal flows and Rossby waves described eloquently by Michael McIntyre as a wave-turbulence jigsaw puzzle. This motivates a review of the barotropic theory of wave, mean-flow interaction, which is underpinned by the Hamiltonian structure of geophysical fluid dynamics.


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 931
Author(s):  
Zhichao Lu ◽  
Tianbao Zhao ◽  
Weican Zhou

As a coupled large-scale oceanic and atmospheric pattern in the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic circumpolar wave (ACW) has substantial impacts on the global climate. In this study, using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ERA5 dataset and historical experiment outputs from 24 models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 and Phase 6 (CMIP5/CMIP6) spanning the 1980s and 1990s, the simulation capability of models for sea-level pressure (SLP) and sea surface temperature (SST) variability of the ACW is evaluated. It is shown that most models can capture well the 50-month period of the ACW. However, many simulations show a weak amplitude, but with various phase differences. Selected models can simulate SLP better than SST, and CMIP6 models generally perform better than the CMIP5 models. The best model for SLP simulation is the CanESM5 model from CMIP6, whereas the best model for SST simulation is the ACCESS1.3 model from CMIP5. It seems that the SST simulation benefits from the inclusion of both a carbon cycle process and a chemistry module, while the SLP simulation benefits from only the chemistry module. When both SLP and SST are taken into consideration, the CanESM5 model performs the best among all the selected models.


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