Several types of flows driven by outflows on the continental shelf are examined mathematically and numerically. Within a quasigeostrophic framework, a variety of vertical structures and topographies are used. Features are explained in terms of potential vorticity conservation. The combined effects of topography and anomalous vorticity of the outflow are studied. First, shelf-like topography is ...

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Interaction between synoptic eddy and lowfrequency flow (SELF) has been the subject of many studies. In this study, we further examine the interaction by introducing a transformed eddy-potential-vorticity (TEPV) flux that is obtained from eddy-potential-vorticity flux through a quasi-geostrophic potential-vorticity inversion. The main advantage of using the TEPV flux is that it combines the eff...

6 We describe discretisations of the shallow water equations on the sphere using the framework of finite element exterior calculus, which are extensions of the mimetic finite difference framework presented in Ringler, Thuburn, Klemp, and Skamarock (Journal of Computational Physics, 2010). The exterior calculus notation provides a guide to which finite element spaces should be used for which phy...

This study uses a shallow-water, normal-mode spectral model to examine the non-linear potential vorticity (PV) dynamics of the break¬down of both infinite an finite-length initial vorticity strips, simulating the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) found near the tropical eastern Pacific region. Irregularities in convection and diabatic heating are simulated using uniformly and randomly spac...

We present global 2-D inviscid disk simulations with an embedded planet, emphasizing the non-linear dynamics in its co-orbital region. We find that the potential vorticity of the flow in this region is not conserved due to the presence of two spiral shocks produced by the planet. As the system evolves, the potential vorticity profile develops extrema (inflection points) which eventually render ...

A two-layer quasigeostrophic model is used to investigate the influence of stratification on the inertial recirculation in a full basin model. It is found that the barotropic transport of the inertial recirculation is intensified significantly through barotropic–baroclinic interactions in the presence of a shallow thermocline or a strong stratification. Weakly nonlinear theories and numerical e...

Coarse resolution numerical ocean models must typically include a parameterisation for mesoscale turbulence. A common recipe for such parameterisations is to invoke mixing of some tracer quantity, such as potential vorticity or buoyancy. However, it is well known that eddy fluxes include large rotational components which necessarily do not lead to any mixing; eddy diffusivities diagnosed from u...

tian atmospheric circulation from assimilated analyses of MGS/TES P.Rogberg, P.L. Read, S.R. Lewis†, L. Montabone‡,Dept. of Physics, University of Oxford, UK; †Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, CEPSAR, The Open University, UK; ‡ Now at Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique du CNRS, Paris, France Data based on re-analyses of the MGS/TES observations have been used to map distributions of potential v...