Quantitatively mapping the Eady model onto a two-layer quasi-geostrophic model

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Meunier, Julie, Gallet, Basile
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866915657026633728
author Meunier, Julie
Gallet, Basile
author_facet Meunier, Julie
Gallet, Basile
contents The two-layer quasigeostrophic model (2LQG) and the Eady model are two idealized systems illustrating the baroclinic instability of atmospheric jets and ocean currents. The two setups share many ingredients -- background vertically sheared zonal flow of density-stratified fluid in a rapidly rotating frame -- while differing in complexity and dimensionality. The Eady model has a continuous vertical direction, with baroclinic turbulence induced by boundary potential vorticity (PV) gradients at top and bottom. By contrast, the 2LQG sytem typically models baroclinic instability induced by interior PV gradients. This distinction challenges our ability to clearly identify a couple of 'modes' through which the Eady dynamics could be inferred from a simpler 2LQG system. In the present study, we show that this difficulty can be circumvented in the turbulent regime arising for weak bottom drag. Namely, guided by the common organization of both systems into a gas of coherent vortices, we identify a quantitative mapping between the Eady and the 2LQG models. The mapping allows for parameter-free predictions of the eddy diffusivity of the Eady model based on the knowledge of the 2LQG diffusivity. We illustrate these results using numerical simulations of the Eady and 2LQG models with linear or quadratic bottom drag.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_05902
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantitatively mapping the Eady model onto a two-layer quasi-geostrophic model
Meunier, Julie
Gallet, Basile
Fluid Dynamics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
The two-layer quasigeostrophic model (2LQG) and the Eady model are two idealized systems illustrating the baroclinic instability of atmospheric jets and ocean currents. The two setups share many ingredients -- background vertically sheared zonal flow of density-stratified fluid in a rapidly rotating frame -- while differing in complexity and dimensionality. The Eady model has a continuous vertical direction, with baroclinic turbulence induced by boundary potential vorticity (PV) gradients at top and bottom. By contrast, the 2LQG sytem typically models baroclinic instability induced by interior PV gradients. This distinction challenges our ability to clearly identify a couple of 'modes' through which the Eady dynamics could be inferred from a simpler 2LQG system. In the present study, we show that this difficulty can be circumvented in the turbulent regime arising for weak bottom drag. Namely, guided by the common organization of both systems into a gas of coherent vortices, we identify a quantitative mapping between the Eady and the 2LQG models. The mapping allows for parameter-free predictions of the eddy diffusivity of the Eady model based on the knowledge of the 2LQG diffusivity. We illustrate these results using numerical simulations of the Eady and 2LQG models with linear or quadratic bottom drag.
title Quantitatively mapping the Eady model onto a two-layer quasi-geostrophic model
topic Fluid Dynamics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.05902