Back to Search
Start Over
Formation of small-scale vortices in the core of a large merged vortex
- Source :
- Geophysical & Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics. 116:411-432
- Publication Year :
- 2022
- Publisher :
- Informa UK Limited, 2022.
-
Abstract
- Funding: We thank LOPS and UBO for a M.Sc internship grant which allowed the first author to carry out this work. The merger of two surface quasi-geostrophic vortices is examined in detail. As the two vortices collapse towards each other in the merging process, they trap their external fronts between them; these fronts are inserted into the final merged vortex, where they form a central, nearly parallel, sheared velocity strip, sensitive to barotropic instability. As a result, this strip breaks up into an alley of small vortices. Subsequently, these small vortices may undergo merger and grow in size in the core of the large merged vortex. The number of small trapped vortices decreases correspondingly. Finally, a single or two small vortices remain. These processes are analysed using a numerical model of the surface quasi-geostrophic equations. The sensitivity of this process to the initial vortex characteristics is explored. A parallel is drawn between this problem and the instability of a rectilinear strip of temperature with a central gap. The application of this problem to the Ocean is discussed. Publisher PDF
- Subjects :
- Vortex merger
NDAS
Computational Mechanics
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Physics::Fluid Dynamics
QC Physics
Geophysics
Geochemistry and Petrology
Mechanics of Materials
Condensed Matter::Superconductivity
Small vortices
Core tapping
QA Mathematics
QA
Barotropic instability
QC
Surface quasi-geostrophy
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10290419 and 03091929
- Volume :
- 116
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Geophysical & Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c7eacfd833d5f16a8d1601137063d3b6