Chaotic mixing and transport in Rossby-wave critical layers

Ngan, K. and Shepherd, T. G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6631-9968 (1997) Chaotic mixing and transport in Rossby-wave critical layers. Journal Of Fluid Mechanics, 334. pp. 315-351. ISSN 0022-1120 doi: 10.1017/S0022112096004363

Abstract/Summary

A simple, dynamically consistent model of mixing and transport in Rossby-wave critical layers is obtained from the well-known Stewartson–Warn–Warn (SWW) solution of Rossby-wave critical-layer theory. The SWW solution is thought to be a useful conceptual model of Rossby-wave breaking in the stratosphere. Chaotic advection in the model is a consequence of the interaction between a stationary and a transient Rossby wave. Mixing and transport are characterized separately with a number of quantitative diagnostics (e.g. mean-square dispersion, lobe dynamics, and spectral moments), and with particular emphasis on the dynamics of the tracer field itself. The parameter dependences of the diagnostics are examined: transport tends to increase monotonically with increasing perturbation amplitude whereas mixing does not. The robustness of the results is investigated by stochastically perturbing the transient-wave phase speed. The two-wave chaotic advection model is contrasted with a stochastic single-wave model. It is shown that the effects of chaotic advection cannot be captured by stochasticity alone.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/32863
Identification Number/DOI	10.1017/S0022112096004363
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
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