Zonal jets in rotating turbulence: organization and role as transport barriers
Stefania Espa, Antonio Cenedese, Michelangelo Mariani
DITS-Sapienza Università di Roma
(Abstract received 08/04/2009 for session B)
ABSTRACT
The organization of a sequence of alternating intense and elongated eastward-westward bands i.e. zonal jets in the atmosphere of Giant Planets and in the Earth’s oceans have been widely investigated (Galperin et al. (2004); Maximenko et al. (2007)). Nevertheless jets formation and their role as material barriers remain still unclear. Jets are generated in a quasi 2D turbulent flow due to the effects of the latitudinal variation of the Coriolis parameter which modify the inverse cascade process channeling energy towards zonal modes (Rhines (1975)) but may also originate from baroclinic instability process via the non-linear interaction between the eddies and the mean flow (Kaspi & Flierl (2007)). In this work we are concerned with the first mechanism, in particular the dynamical properties of quasi-2D turbulence under the influence of strong rotation will be experimentally reproduced and analyzed. The role of eastward and westward jets as meridional transport barriers is then discussed both in terms of potential vorticity gradient distribution and of Finite Size Lyapunov Exponents (Boffetta et al. (2001)).
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