IUGG 2003 Abstract

JSP10 Rotating and Stratified Fluids (IAPSO, IAGA, IAMAS, SEDI) Thursday, July 10 AM Location: Site B, Room 21

TIME [ 1140 ] [ JSP10/10A/B21-008 ]

SELF-SIMILARITY OF VORTICITY DYNAMICS IN DECAYING CHM TURBULENCE

Takahiro IWAYAMA(Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University)

Theodore G. SHEPHERD(Department of Physics, University of Toronto) Takeshi WATANABE ( Department of System Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology )

In decaying 2D Navier-Stokes turbulence, Batchelor′s similarity hypothesis fails due to the existence of coherent vortices. However, it is shownthat decaying 2D turbulence governed by the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima (CHM) equation is well described by Batchelor′s similarity hypothesis forlength scales much greater than the Rossby deformation radius, suggesting that vortices in this regime are not really coherent. A theoryfor the self-similarity of energy and enstrophy spectral fluxes is also presented. It is argued that the possibility of complete self-similaritydepends on the choice of dissipation operators.