Dynamics of zonal flows in planetary interiors and core-mantle interactions

我的研究重点是流体行星内部的动力学和类地行星的核幔相互作用。这些都是行星演化的关键要素，也解释了为什么仅在我们的太阳系内，每颗行星都有着明显不同的历史。在这项提案中，我的研究小组将使用先进的计算模型来解决从理解地球一天的长度变化到巨型行星大气中复杂的流体行为等问题。行星自转是行星内部流动的主要动力学影响。在快速旋转的行星中，流动表现出一种显著的（和不直观的）行为：它们在平行于旋转轴的方向上往往没有速度变化。一个位移的流体块将夹带着它的每一个包以上和以下的垂直列：流动的行为，如果它只是二维（2D）。在我的研究小组中，我们利用这一特性，并使用2D动力学模型模拟行星流。这使我们能够研究更动荡的政权。在这项研究计划中，我们将应用这些想法来模拟木星上观察到的纬向喷流。我们还应用这个概念来模拟地球的核心流，更具体地说，研究一类流，包括与旋转轴对齐的同心圆柱体之间的差分运动。地球核心的流动也与其顶部（地幔）和底部（内核）的固体边界相互作用。这些相互作用包括电磁（EM）耦合;我的项目之一是研究核幔边界的非均匀EM耦合可能对地球表面观测到的磁场几何形状及其时间变化的作用。此外，流体-固体的相互作用会导致内核和地幔的旋转速率发生变化：后者被观测为白天长度（LOD）的变化。我的一个项目建议测试不同的核幔相互作用方案，目的是确定过去100年来LOD变化的力量性质。

The focus of my research is on the dynamics of fluid planetary interiors and on core-mantle interactions in terrestrial planets. These are key elements in the evolution of planets and explain why, within our solar system alone, each planet has had a markedly different history. In this proposal, my research group will address using advanced computational models topics that range from understanding variations in the length of the Earth's day through to complex fluid behavior seen in the atmospheres of the giant planets. Planetary rotation is the dominant dynamical influence on flows inside planets. Flows in rapidly rotating planets exhibit a remarkable (and unintuitive) behavior: they tend to have no velocity variation in the direction parallel to the rotation axis. A displaced parcel of fluid will entrain with it every parcels above and below in a vertical column: the flow behaves as if it is only two-dimensional (2D). In my research group, we exploit this feature and simulate planetary flows using a 2D model of the dynamics. This allows us to study more turbulent regimes. In this research proposal, we will apply these ideas to simulate the zonal jets that are observed on Jupiter. We also apply this concept to simulate flows in the Earth's core, more specifically to study a class of flow that consists of differential motion between co-centric cylinders aligned with the rotation axis. Flows in Earth's core also interact with its solid boundaries at the top (mantle) and bottom (inner core). These interactions include electromagnetic (EM) coupling; one of my projects is to investigate the role that non-uniform EM coupling at the core-mantle boundary may have on the geometry of the magnetic field and its time variations observed at the Earth's surface. In addition, fluid-solid interactions produce changes in the rotation rates of the inner core and mantle: the latter are observed as changes in the length of day (LOD). One of my projects proposes to test different scenarios of core-mantle interactions with a goal to identify the nature of the force responsible for the changes in the LOD over the past 100 years.