Tilted Baroclinic Tidal Vortices

Physical Simulation of Baroclinic Waves and Vortices in the Atmosphere

Baroclinic Vortices over a Sloping Bottom

Nonlinear quasigeostrophic flows in two layers over a topographic slope are considered. Scaling the lower layer potential vorticity equation yields two parameters which indicate the degree of nonlinearity in the lower layer. The first, u' (the strength of the deep flow divided by the product of the effective bottom slope and the squared length scale), is related to the advection of relative vor...

Numerical Simulation of Baroclinic Jovian Vortices

We examine the evolution of baroclinic vortices in a time-dependent, nonlinear numerical model of a Jovian atmosphere. The model uses a normal-mode expansion in the vertical, using the barotropic and first two baroclinic modes. Results for the stability of baroclinic vortices on an f plane in the absence of a mean zonal flow are similar to results of Earth vortex models, although the presence o...

Scaling Baroclinic Eddy Fluxes: Vortices and Energy Balance

The eddy heat flux generated by the statistically equilibrated baroclinic instability of a uniform, horizontal temperature gradient is studied using a two-mode f-plane quasigeostrophic model. An overview of the dependence of the eddy diffusivity D on the bottom friction , the deformation radius , the vertical variation of the large-scale flow U, and the domain size L is provided by numerical si...

Tilted accretion discs in cataclysmic variables : Tidal instabilities and superhumps

We investigate the growth of tidal instabilities in accretion discs in a binary star potential, using three dimensional numerical simulations. As expected from analytic work, the disc is prone to an eccentric instability provided that it is large enough to extend to the 3:1 resonance. The eccentric disc leads to positive superhumps in the light curve. It has been proposed that negative superhum...