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Spontaneous inertia–gravity wave emission in the differentially heated rotating annulus experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2018

Steffen Hien Open the ORCID record for Steffen Hien [Opens in a new window] ,
Joran Rolland ,
Sebastian Borchert ,
Lena Schoon ,
Christoph Zülicke  and
Ulrich Achatz
Steffen Hien*
Affiliation:
Institut für Atmosphäre und Umwelt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Altenhöferallee 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Joran Rolland
Affiliation:
Institut für Atmosphäre und Umwelt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Altenhöferallee 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Sebastian Borchert
Affiliation:
Deutscher Wetterdienst, Frankfurter Straße 135, D-63067 Offenbach am Main, Germany
Lena Schoon
Affiliation:
Leibniz-Institut für Atmosphärenphysik, Schlossstraße 6, D-18225 Kühlungsborn, Germany
Christoph Zülicke
Affiliation:
Leibniz-Institut für Atmosphärenphysik, Schlossstraße 6, D-18225 Kühlungsborn, Germany
Ulrich Achatz
Affiliation:
Institut für Atmosphäre und Umwelt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Altenhöferallee 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
*
†Email address for correspondence: hien@iau.uni-frankfurt.de
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Abstract

The source mechanism of inertia–gravity waves (IGWs) observed in numerical simulations of the differentially heated rotating annulus experiment is investigated. The focus is on the wave generation from the balanced part of the flow, a process presumably contributing significantly to the atmospheric IGW field. Direct numerical simulations are performed for an atmosphere-like configuration of the annulus and possible regions of IGW activity are characterised by a Hilbert-transform algorithm. In addition, the flow is separated into a balanced and unbalanced part, assuming the limit of a small Rossby number, and the forcing of IGWs by the balanced part of the flow is derived rigorously. Tangent-linear simulations are then used to identify the part of the IGW signal that is rather due to radiation by the internal balanced flow than to boundary-layer instabilities at the side walls. An idealised fluid set-up without rigid horizontal boundaries is considered as well, to investigate the effect of the identified balanced forcing unmasked by boundary-layer effects. The direct simulations of the realistic and idealised fluid set-ups show a clear baroclinic-wave structure exhibiting a jet–front system similar to its atmospheric counterparts, superimposed by four distinct IGW packets. The subsequent tangent-linear analysis indicates that three wave packets are radiated from the internal flow and a fourth one is probably caused by boundary-layer instabilities. The forcing by the balanced part of the flow is found to play a significant role in the generation of IGWs, so it supplements boundary-layer instabilities as a key factor in the IGW emission in the differentially heated rotating annulus.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Baroclinic flows Geophysical and Geological Flows: Geophysical and Geological Flows Geophysical and Geological Flows: Internal waves
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 838 , 10 March 2018 , pp. 5 - 41
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Copyright
© 2018 Cambridge University Press 

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Footnotes

‡

Present address: Institut PPrime, UPR 3346, 86062 Chasseneuil-du-Poitou, France.

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