Local and nonlocal advection of a passive scalar

Passive and active scalar mixing is examined in a simple one-parameter family of two-dimensional flows based on quasi-geostrophic dynamics, in which the active scalar, the quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity, is confined to a single horizontal surface so-called surface quasi-geostrophic dynamics and in which a passive scalar field is also advected by the horizontal, two-dimensional velocity field at a finite distance from the surface. At large distances from the surface the flow is determined by the largest horizontal scales, the flow is spectrally nonlocal, and a chaotic advection-type regime dominates. At small distances, z, scaling arguments suggest a transition wavenumber kc 1/2z, where the slope of the passive scalar spectrum changes from k−5/3, determined by local dynamics, to k−1, determined by nonlocal dynamics, analogous to the transition to a k−1 slope in the Batchelor regime in three-dimensional turbulence. Direct numerical simulations reproduce the qualitative aspects of this transition. Other characteristics of the simulated scalar fields, such as the relative dominance of coherent or filamentary structures, are also shown to depend strongly on the degree of locality. © 2006 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2375020