Search

In this paper, we study geostrophic turbulence without external forcing or dissipation, using a Casimir-preserving numerical method. The research examines the formation of large zonal jets, common in geophysical flows, especially in giant gas planets. These jets form due to the east-west stretching of vortices, influenced by the gradient of the Coriolis parameter, leading to a critical latitude beyond which jets do not form. Using a global quasi-geostrophic model with a fully latitude-dependent Coriolis parameter, we investigate this critical latitude, which is theorized to depend only on the product of the Rossby number and the Lamb parameter. By simulating random flow fields, the critical latitude was identified through zonally averaged zonal velocity profiles. Results align with geostrophic theory, especially near typical Rossby and Lamb parameter values for Earth's atmosphere. However, in the regime of weak rotation (high Rossby numbers) and strong stratification (high Lamb values), no clear critical latitude emerges; instead, zonal jet amplitude and width decrease gradually towards the poles. This research paves the way for further study of jet dynamics under a fully latitude-dependent Coriolis parameter.

Accurate long-term predictions of large-scale flow features on planets are crucial for understanding global atmospheric and oceanic systems, necessitating the development of numerical methods that can preserve essential physical structures over extended simulation periods without excessive computational costs. Recent advancements in the study of global single-layer barotropic models have led to novel numerical methods based on Lie-Poisson discretization that preserve energy, enstrophy and higher-order moments of potential vorticity. This work extends this approach to more complex stratified quasi-geostrophic (QG) systems on the sphere. In this work, we present a formulation of the multi-layer QG equations on the full globe. This allows for extending the Lie-Poisson discretization to multi-layer QG models, ensuring consistency with the underlying structure and enabling long-term simulations without additional regularization. The numerical method is benchmarked through simulations of forced geostrophic turbulence and the long-term behaviour of unforced multi-layered systems. These results demonstrate the structure-preserving properties and robustness of the proposed numerical method, paving the way for a better understanding of the role of high-order conserved quantities in large-scale geophysical flow dynamics.

An integrator for a class of stochastic Lie-Poisson systems driven by Stratonovich noise is developed. The integrator is suited for Lie-Poisson systems that also admit an isospectral formulation, which enables scalability to high-dimensional systems. Its derivation follows from discrete Lie-Poisson reduction of the symplectic midpoint scheme for stochastic Hamiltonian systems. We prove almost sure preservation of Casimir functions and coadjoint orbits under the numerical flow and provide strong and weak convergence rates of the proposed method. The scalability, structure-conservation, and convergence rates are illustrated numerically for the (generalized) rigid body, point vortex dynamics, and the two-dimensional Euler equations on the sphere., Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures, all comments are welcome!

A framework for deriving probabilistic data-driven closure models is proposed for coarse-grained numerical simulations of turbulence in statistically stationary state. The approach unites the ideal large-eddy simulation model and data assimilation methods. The method requires a posteriori measured data to define stochastic flow perturbations, which are combined with a Bayesian statistical correction enforcing user-specified statistics extracted from high-fidelity flow snapshots. Thus, it enables computationally cheap ensemble simulations by combining knowledge of the local integration error and knowledge of desired flow statistics. A model example is given for two-dimensional Rayleigh-B\'enard convection at Rayleigh number $\mathit{Ra}=10^{10}$, incorporating stochastic perturbations and an ensemble Kalman filtering step in a non-intrusive way. Physical flow dynamics are obtained, whilst kinetic energy spectra and heat flux are accurately reproduced in long-time ensemble forecasts on coarse grids. The model is shown to produce accurate results with as few as 20 high-fidelity flow snapshots as input data., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures. The data and adopted implementations that support the findings of this study are publicly available in Zenodo at http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13353273

We present a geometric derivation of the quasi-geostrophic equations on the sphere, starting from the rotating shallow water equations. We utilise perturbation series methods in vorticity and divergence variables. The derivation employs asymptotic analysis techniques, leading to a global quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity model on the sphere without approximation of the Coriolis parameter. The resulting model forms a closed system for the evolution of potential vorticity with a rich mathematical structure, including Lagrangian and Hamiltonian descriptions. Formulated using the Lie-Poisson bracket reveals the geometric invariants of the quasi-geostrophic model. Motivated by these geometric results, simulations of quasi-geostrophic flow on the sphere are presented based on structure-preserving Lie-Poisson time-integration. We explicitly demonstrate the preservation of Casimir invariants and show that the hyperbolic quasi-geostrophic equations can be simulated in a stable manner over long time. We show the emergence of longitudonal jets, wrapped around the circumference of the sphere in a general direction that is perpendicular to the axis of rotation., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, first version - all comments are welcome!