Charney's Model—the Renowned Prototype of Baroclinic Instability—Is Barotropically Unstable As Well

The Charney model is reexamined using a new mathematical tool, the multiscale window transform(MWT), and the MWT-based localized multiscale energetics analysis developed by Liang and Robinson to deal with realistic geophysical fluid flow processes. Traditionally, though this model has been taken as a prototype of baroclinic instability, it actually undergoes a mixed one. While baroclinic instability explains the bottom-trapped feature of the perturbation, the second extreme center in the perturbation field can only be explained by a new barotropic instability when the Charney–Green number γ 1, which takes place throughout the fluid column, and is maximized at a height where its baroclinic counterpart stops functioning.The giving way of the baroclinic instability to a barotropic one at this height corresponds well to the rectification of the tilting found on the maps of perturbation velocity and pressure. Also established in this study is the relative importance of barotropic instability to baroclinic instability in terms of γ. When γ 1, barotropic instability is negligible and hence the system can be viewed as purely baroclinic; when γ 1, however, barotropic and baroclinic instabilities are of the same order;in fact, barotropic instability can be even stronger. The implication of these results has been discussed in linking them to real atmospheric processes.