Polar ocean and atmosphere: large scale vortex dynamics

海洋和大气有大气环流，但也有丰富的小得多的流场和密度场。我的总体研究目标是更好地了解动力学过程，管理的分层和旋转的流体，包括地球的海洋的行为。这项研究将提高我们预测复杂非线性流体动力系统演化的能力。在下一个资助期间，我建议继续这项工作，以加深我们对海洋流动中的大尺度和小尺度涡旋现象的理解。这项建议的主要目标是研究极地β平面上的环流，该平面模拟极地海洋或大气中科里奥利参数的二次变化。特别关注的是生产的射流般的电流，涡流和Rossby波。该方法包括理论，数值模拟和实验室实验。在实验室中，我们使用了一种新的方法，远程测量旋转流体中的压力，速度和涡度。我们称这种新技术为“高度图像测速”，因为它使用抛物面流体表面作为牛顿望远镜来检测表面的小尺度扰动。该方法可以提供高分辨率的速度场，使得实验室实验在详细绘制流动方面等于或超过当前的三维数值模型。使用这种方法的研究结果将是非常感兴趣的社区参与解决“自发的不平衡”或“射流和环形结构的地球物理流体动力学”谁正在努力包括非地转动力学在传统上一直是准地转理想化的海洋和大气。这种方法是新的，可以提供尖端的研究在加拿大这里。

The oceans and atmosphere have general circulation, and yet are rich with flow fields and density fields of much smaller scale. My overall research objective is to better understand the dynamical processes that govern the behavior of the stratified and rotating fluids that comprise the Earth's oceans. This study will enhance our capability to predict the evolution of complex nonlinear fluid dynamical systems. During the next grant period I propose to continue this work in order to deepen our understanding of large and small-scale vortical phenomena in oceanic flows.The main objective of this proposal is to investigate circulations on a polar beta-plane which models the quadratic variation of the Coriolis parameter in the polar ocean or atmosphere. The particular focus is on the production of jet-like currents, vortices and Rossby waves. The approach includes theory, numerical simulations and laboratory experiments. In the laboratory we use a new method of remotely measuring pressure, velocity and vorticity in a rotating fluid. We call this new technique 'Altimetric Image Velocimetry', as it uses the parabolic fluid surface as a Newtonian telescope to detect small scale perturbations of the surface. This method can provide high resolution velocity field such that laboratory experiments equal or exceed current 3D numerical models in detailed rendering of the flow. The outcome of the research using this method will be of great interest for communities involved in addressing 'spontaneous imbalance' or 'jets and annular structures in geophysical fluid dynamics ' who are working to include non-geostrophic dynamics in what traditionally have been quasi-geostrophic idealizations of ocean and atmosphere. This method is new and can provide the cutting edge research here in Canada.