Absorption of waves by large-scale winds in stratified turbulence

The atmosphere is a nonlinear stratified fluid in which internal gravity waves are present. These waves interact with the flow, resulting in wave turbulence that displays important differences with the turbulence observed in isotropic and homogeneous flows. We study numerically the role of these wav...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Clark Di Leoni, Patricio, Mininni, Pablo Daniel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/44012
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/44012
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Stratified Flows
Wave Turbulence
Critical Layer
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:The atmosphere is a nonlinear stratified fluid in which internal gravity waves are present. These waves interact with the flow, resulting in wave turbulence that displays important differences with the turbulence observed in isotropic and homogeneous flows. We study numerically the role of these waves and their interaction with the large-scale flow, consisting of vertically sheared horizontal winds. We calculate their space- and time-resolved energy spectrum (a four-dimensional spectrum) and show that most of the energy is concentrated along a dispersion relation that is Doppler shifted by the horizontal winds. We also observe that when uniform winds are let to develop in each horizontal layer of the flow, waves whose phase velocity is equal to the horizontal wind speed have negligible energy. This indicates a nonlocal transfer of their energy to the mean flow. Both phenomena, the Doppler shift and the absorption of waves traveling with the wind speed, are not accounted for in current theories of stratified wave turbulence.