A temperature structure appropriate for maritime areas is employed to find exact solutions to the non-linear quasi-geostrophic omega and vorticity equations, using a procedure similar to that used in a quasigeostrophic model by Sanders (1971). Results are qualitatively similar to those found in the latter model, and thus, are consistent with the traditional baroclinic stability theory. The prin...

Solutions are obtained for convective regions in a continuously stratified, linearized primitive equation model using a smoothly posed moist convective adjustment parameterization of cumulus convection. In the approximation in which the convective adjustment time is fast compared to other processes, the vertical structure of the temperature field is constrained to be close to the quasi-equilibr...

A conservative 3-D discontinuous Galerkin (DG) baroclinic model has been developed in the NCAR High-Order Method Modeling Environment (HOMME) to investigate global atmospheric flows. The computational domain is a cubed-sphere free from coordinate singularities. The DG discretization uses a high-order nodal basis set of orthogonal Lagrange-Legendre polynomials and fluxes of inter-element boundar...

Altering the tropospheric static stability changes the nature of the equatorial superrotation associated with unstable, low-latitude, westerly jets, according to calculations with a dry, global, multilevel, spectral, primitive equation model subject to a simple Newtonian heating function. For a low static stability, the superrotation fluxes with the simplest structure occur when the stratospher...

The three-dimensional baroclinic quasigeostrophic flow model has been widely used to study basic mechanisms in oceanic flows and climate dynamics. In this paper, we consider this flow model under random wind forcing and time-periodic fluctuations on fluid boundary (the interface between the oceans and the atmosphere). The time-periodic fluctuations are due to periodic rotation of the earth and ...

Christopher K. Newman, Dana A. Knoll, T-3 Physics-based preconditioning is a highly successful approach for multiple-time-scale problems where an accurate simulation is desired on the dynamical time scale. In our research we are developing physics-based preconditioners for ocean simulation based on barotropic-baroclinic splitting. Our approach is a fully implicit, fully coupled time integration...

Recent theories of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current suggest that its lateral and vertical stratification is controlled by its baroclinic instability: eddies in the ACC not only feed off the available potential energy stored in sloping isopycnals but play a central role is setting up that stratification. Simple theory makes predictions about how the depth of the thermocline in the ACC depends o...

Time-dependent, two layer hydraulic exchange flow is studied using an idealised shallow water model. It is found that barotropic time-dependent perturbations, representing tidal forcing, increase the baroclinic exchange flux above the steady hydraulic limit, with flux increasing monotonically with tidal amplitude (measured either by height or flux amplitude over a tidal period). Exchange flux a...

In June of 2009, a sea trial was carried out around Singapore to study and monitor physical, biological and chemical oceanographic parameters. Temperature, salinity and velocities were collected from multiple vehicles. The extensive data set collected in the Serangoon Harbour provides an opportunity to study barotropic and baroclinic circulation in the harbour and to apply data assimilation met...

In the earth’s atmosphere baroclinic instability is responsible for the heat and momentum transport from low to high latitudes. Baroclinic instability leads to the growth of multi-scale vortices that accomplish the meridional heat transport. Raymond Hide used a rather simple laboratory experiment to study such vortices in the lab (Hide, 1953). The experiment is comprised by a cooled inner and h...