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An experimental study of unstable barotropic vortices in a rotating fluid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

R. C. Kloosterziel  and
G. J. F. van Heijst
R. C. Kloosterziel
Affiliation:
Institute of Meteorology and Oceanography, University of Utrecht, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands Present affiliation: Institute for Nonlinear Science, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
G. J. F. van Heijst
Affiliation:
Institute of Meteorology and Oceanography, University of Utrecht, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Abstract

Laboratory experiments on barotropic vortices in a rotating fluid revealed that the instability behaviour of cyclonic and anticyclonic vortices is remarkably different. Depending on its initial vorticity distribution, the cyclonic vortex has in a number of experiments been observed to be unstable to wavenumber-2 perturbations, leading to the gradual formation of a stable tripolar vortex structure. This tripole consists of an elongated cyclonic core vortex adjoined by two anticyclonic satellite vortices.

In contrast, the anticyclonic vortex shows a rather explosive instability behaviour, in the sense that it is observed to immediately split up into two dipoles. Under somewhat different circumstances the higher-order mode-3 instability is observed, in which the anticyclonic core has a triangular shape, with three smaller cyclonic satellite vortices at its sides.

A modified version of Rayleigh's instability criterion offers a qualitative explanation for this apparent difference between unstable cyclonic and anticyclonic vortices.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 223 , February 1991 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
© 1991 Cambridge University Press

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