Slow hydromagnetic oscillations in a rotating spheroidal shell

Abstract

The ray method is used to study slow hydromagnetic waves in an incompressible, inviscid, perfectly conducting fluid of constant density in the presence of a constant toroidal magnetic field. The fluid is bounded below by a rigid sphere and above by a rigid spheroidal surface, and the mean fluid layer thickness is assumed to be small. Both the general time-dependent and time-harmonic (free oscillation) problems are studied and dispersion relations and conservation laws are derived. These results are applied to free oscillations with constant azimuthal wave number in a spherical shell and then compared to those of previous authors. Such oscillations propagate to the east and are trapped between circles of constant latitude. Wave propagation in axisymmetric shells is then studied with emphasis on the relationship between shell shape and direction of propagation, and it is found that such shells can sustain westward propagating modes wherever the shell thickness decreases sufficiently rapidly from a maximum at the poles to zero at the equator; no shells exist which can sustain westward propagation at the equator.     

Hydromagnetic waves in a thin rotating spherical shell

We consider an electrically conducting fluid confined to a thin rotating spherical shell in which the Elsasser and magnetic Reynolds numbers are assumed to be large while the Rossby number is assumed to vanish in an appropriate limit. This may be taken as a simple model for a possible stable layer at the top of the Earth's outer core. It may also be a model for the thin shells which are thought to be a source of the magnetic fields of some planets such as Mercury or Uranus. Linear hydromagnetic waves are studied using a multiple scale asymptotic scheme in which boundary layers and the associated boundary conditions determine the structure of the waves. These waves are assumed to be of the form of an asymptotic series expanded about an ambient magnetic field which vanishes on the equatorial plane and velocity and pressure fields which do not. They take the form of short wave, slowly varying wave trains. The results are compared to the author's previous work on such waves in cylindrical geometry in which the boundary conditions play no role. The approximation obtained is significantly different from that obtained in the previous work in that an essential singularity appears at the equator and nonequatorial wave regions appear.     

Free oscillations of a rotating fluid contained between two spheroidal surfaces

Abstract

A theoretical study is made of the free periods of oscillation of an incompressible inviscid fluid, bounded by two rigid concentric spheroids. It is shown that the topography of the bounding surfaces can have a significant effect on the distribution of the eigenvalues. The significance of this result is discussed with reference to the observed westward drift of the geomagnetic secular variation.     

Hydromagnetic waves in a differentially rotating,stratified spherical shell

Abstract

Investigations of an earlier paper (Friedlander 1987a) are extended to include the effect of an azimuthal shear flow on the small amplitude oscillations of a rotating, density stratified, electrically conducting, non-dissipative fluid in the geometry of a spherical shell. The basic state mean fields are taken to be arbitrary toroidal axisymmetric functions of space that are consistent with the constraint of the ‘‘magnetic thermal wind equation''. The problem is formulated to emphasize the similarities between the magnetic and the non-magnetic internal wave problem. Energy integrals are constructed and the stabilizing/destabilizing roles of the shears in the basic state functions are examined. Effects of curvature and sphericity are studied for the eigenvalue problem. This is given by a partial differential equation (P.D.E.) of mixed type with, in general, a complex pattern of turning surfaces delineating the hyperbolic and elliptic regimes. Further mathematical complexities arise from a distribution of the magnetic analogue of critical latitudes. The magnetic extension of Laplace's tidal equations are discussed. It is observed that the magnetic analogue of planetary waves may propagate to the east and to the west.     

Transitions to chaotic thermal convection in a rapidly rotating spherical fluid shell

Abstract

Numerical simulations of thermal convection in a rapidly rotating spherical fluid shell heated from below and within have been carried out with a nonlinear, three-dimensional, time-dependent pseudospectral code. The investigated phenomena include the sequence of transitions to chaos and the differential mean zonal rotation. At the fixed Taylor number T _a =10⁶ and Prandtl number Pr=1 and with increasing Rayleigh number R, convection undergoes a series of bifurcations from onset of steadily propagating motions SP at R=R _c = 13050, to a periodic state P, and thence to a quasi-periodic state QP and a non-periodic or chaotic state NP. Examples of SP, P, QP, and NP solutions are obtained at R = 1.3R _c , R = 1.7 R _c , R = 2R _c , and R = 5 R _c , respectively. In the SP state, convection rolls propagate at a constant longitudinal phase velocity that is slower than that obtained from the linear calculation at the onset of instability. The P state, characterized by a single frequency and its harmonics, has a two-layer cellular structure in radius. Convection rolls near the upper and lower surfaces of the spherical shell both propagate in a prograde sense with respect to the rotation of the reference frame. The outer convection rolls propagate faster than those near the inner shell. The physical mechanism responsible for the time-periodic oscillations is the differential shear of the convection cells due to the mean zonal flow. Meridional transport of zonal momentum by the convection cells in turn supports the mean zonal differential rotation. In the QP state, the longitudinal wave number m of the convection pattern oscillates among m = 3,4,5, and 6; the convection pattern near the outer shell has larger m than that near the inner shell. Radial motions are very weak in the polar regions. The convection pattern also shifts in m for the NP state at R = 5R _c , whose power spectrum is characterized by broadened peaks and broadband background noise. The convection pattern near the outer shell propagates prograde, while the pattern near the inner shell propagates retrograde with respect to the basic rotation. Convection cells exist in polar regions. There is a large variation in the vigor of individual convection cells. An example of a more vigorously convecting chaotic state is obtained at R = 50R _c . At this Rayleigh number some of the convection rolls have axes perpendicular to the axis of the basic rotation, indicating a partial relaxation of the rotational constraint. There are strong convective motions in the polar regions. The longitudinally averaged mean zonal flow has an equatorial superrotation and a high latitude subrotation for all cases except R = 50R _c , at this highest Rayleigh number, the mean zonal flow pattern is completely reversed, opposite to the solar differential rotation pattern.     

Effects of dissipation on internal waves in a contained rotating stratified fluid

Abstract

Boundary layer techniques are used to examine the modifications due to dissipation in the normal modes of a uniformly rotating, density stratified, Boussinesq fluid in a rigid container. Arbitrary relative influence of rotation and stratification is considered. The existence of critical regions of the container boundary is discussed. In cylindrical geometry a formula is derived for the decay factor on the homogeneous “spin-up” time scale which reveals how the dominant dissipation varies as a function of several parameters. For the situation where the buoyancy and inertial frequency are exactly equal, all boundaries are everywhere critical. In this case the method of multiple time-scales is employed to investigate the confluence inertial-gravity mode which is shown to persist until the diffusive time-scale is achieved.     

Internal waves in a rotating stratified fluid in an arbitrary gravitational field

Abstract

Small amplitude oscillations of a uniformly rotating, density stratified, Boussinesq, non-dissipative fluid are examined. A mathematical model is constructed to describe timedependent motions which are small deviations from an initial state that is motionless with respect to the rotating frame of reference. The basic stable density distribution is allowed to be an arbitrary prescribed function of the gravitational potential. The problem is considered for a wide class of gravitational fields. General properties of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of square integrable oscillations are demonstrated, and a bound is obtained for the magnitude of the frequencies. The modal solutions are classified as to type. The eigenfunctions for the pressure field are shown to satisfy a second-order partial differential equation of mixed type, and the equation is obtained for the critical surfaces which delineate the elliptic and hyperbolic regions. The nature of the problem is examined in detail for certain specific gravitational fields, e.g., a radially symmetric field. Where appropriate, results are compared with those of other investigations of waves in a rotating fluid of spherical configuration and the novel aspects of the present treatment are emphasized. Explicit modal solutions are obtained in the specific example of a fluid contained in a rigid cylinder, stratified in the presence of vertical gravity, with the buoyancy frequency N being an arbitrary prescribed function of depth.     

Effect of a uniform magnetic field on nonlinear magnetocenvection in a rotating fluid spherical shell

Abstract

Dynamic interaction between magnetic field and fluid motion is studied through a numerical experiment of nonlinear three-dimensional magnetoconvection in a rapidly rotating spherical fluid shell to which a uniform magnetic field parallel to its spin axis is applied. The fluid shell is heated by internal heat sources to maintain thermal convection. The mean value of the magnetic Reynolds number in the fluid shell is 22.4 and 10 pairs of axially aligned vortex rolls are stably developed. We found that confinement of magnetic flux into anti-cyclonic vortex rolls was crucial on an abrupt change of the mode of magnetoconvection which occurred at Δ = 1 ～ 2, where A is the Elsasser number. After the mode change, the fluid shell can store a large amount of magnetic flux in itself by changing its convection style, and the magnetostrophic balance among the Coriolis, Lorentz and pressure forces is established. Furthermore, the toroidal/poloidal ratio of the induced magnetic energy becomes less than unity, and the magnetized anti-cyclones are enlarged due to the effect of the magnetic force. Using these key ideas, we investigated the causes of the mode change of magnetoconvection. Considering relatively large magnetic Reynolds number and a rapid rotation rate of this model, we believe that these basic ideas used to interpret the present numerical experiment can be applied to the dynamics in the Earth's and other planetary cores.     

Experimental study of long nonlinear internal waves in rotating fluid

Experiments were performed on the rotating platform 14 m in diameter equipped with a simple internal wave generator. Internal waves were generated for a wide range of Coriolis parameters. When the rotation is very weak, i.e., when the internal Rossby radius of deformation is much larger than the wavelength, then the stable nonlinear waves generated are solitary waves. These have a horizontal crest, as in the nonrotating case. When the rotation is strong, i.e., when the internal Rossby radius is at most comparable with the wavelength, then Sverdrup-like periodic waves can be generated, but no solitary wave can then propagate. For the intermediate case, Ostrovsky waves are generated. Their phase speed increases with increasing amplitude. Then, there are two characteristic wave lengths: one which varies with the inverse square root of the amplitude, as for the KdV wave, and the other, linked with the rotation, which varies as the square root of the amplitude. The experimental results are thus in agreement with most of the conclusions in recent analytical developments.     

Wave propagation in a uniformly rotating fluid

Summary An unsteady flow generated by a harmonically oscillating pressure distribution of frequency acting on the paraboloidal free surface of an inviscid, incompressible fluid rotating with uniform angular velocity has been investigated. It is shown that case (i), >2 , corresponds to the usual surface waves, and case (ii), <2 , in contrast to the surface waves, corresponds to the inertial waves which are originated entirely due to rotation and have no counterpart in a non-rotating fluid motion. An explicit solution of the problem related to the above cases are obtained by the joint Laplace and Hankel transforms treatment in conjunction with asymptotic methods. The significant effects of the Coriolis force and the curvature of the free surface on the wave motions have been investigated. A comparison is made between the solutions of the problems with the horizontal and the paraboloidal free surface curvature. The analysis is concluded by exihibiting the characteristic features of the wave motions.     

Frontal upwelling in a rotating two-layer fluid

Abstract

This paper describes the source-sink driven flow in a two-layer fluid confined in a rotating annulus. Light fluid is injected at the inner wall, while denser fluid is withdrawn at the outer wall. The interface between the immiscible fluids intersects the bottom and thus produces a front. The net transport from the source to the sink is carried by Ekman layers at the bottom and at the interface, and by Stewartson layers at the side walls. A detached Stewartson layer arises at the front, leading to a pronounced upwelling circulation.     

Nonlinear waves in rotating magnetohydrodynamics

We consider an electrically conducting fluid in rotating cylindrical coordinates in which the Elsasser and magnetic Reynolds numbers are assumed to be large while the Rossby number is assumed to vanish in an appropriate limit. This may be taken as a simple model for the Earth's outer core. Fully nonlinear waves dominated by the nonlinear Lorentz forces are studied using the method of geometric optics (essentially WKB). These waves are assumed to be of the form of an asymptotic series expanded about ambient magnetic and velocity fields which vanish on the equatorial plane. They take the form of short wave, slowly varying wave trains. The first-order approximation is sinusoidal and basically the same as in the linear problem, with a dispersion relation modified by the appearance of mean terms. These mean terms, as well the undetermined amplitude functions, are found by suppressing secular terms in a “fast” variable in the second-order approximation. The interaction of the mean terms with the dispersion relation is the primary cause of behaviors which differ from the linear case. In particular, new singularities appear in the wave amplitude functions and an initial value problem results in a singularity in one of the mean terms which propagates through the fluid. The singularities corresponding to the linear ones are shown to develop when the corresponding waves propagate toward the equatorial plane.     

Spin-up of a two-layer fluid in a rotating cylinder

Abstract

we report the results of experiments on the spin-up of two layers of immiscible fluid with a free upper surface in a rotating cylinder over a wide range of internal Froude numbers. Observations of the evolution of the velocity field by particle tracking indicates that spin-up of the azimuthal velocity in the upper layer take much longer than in a homogeneous fluid. Initially, spin-up occurs at a rate comparable to that of homogeneous fluid but, at high internal Froude number, a second phase follows in which the remaining lative motion decays much more slowly. Quantitative comparison of these measurements to the theory of Pedlosky (1967) shows good agreement.

Visualization of the interface displacement during spin-up detected the presence of transient azimuthal variations in the interface elevation over a wide range of Froude (F), Ekman (E), and Rossby (ε) number. nalysis of the occurrence of the asymmetric variations using the parameter space (Q, F), where Q = E ^1/2/ε, suggested by the baroclinic instability theory and experiments of Hart (1972), showed that the flow was stable for Q > 0.06 with no discernable dependence on F. This result, together with the prediction of Pedlosky's theory that radial gradient of potential vorticity in the two layers have opposite signs, suggests at the baroclinic instability mechanism was responsible for the asymmetries. The location and timing of these instabilities may account for the discrepancies between the observations and the Pedlosky (1967) theory.     

Solitary waves in a compressible fluid

Evolution equations for long nonlinear internal waves in a compressible fluid are derived, with the aim of comparing these equations with their counterparts in an incompressible fluid. Both the Korteweg-de Vries equation, and the deep fluid equation are discussed, for both dry and moist atmospheres. It is shown that the effects of compressibility, or non-Boussinesq terms, are generally small, but measurable, and are manifested mainly in the nonlinear term of the evolution equation. For the case of a moist atmosphere the effect of a gain in energy by latent heat release is compared with the energy lost by radiation damping.     

Waves in a viscous fluid on a rotating sphere

Summary In this note the waves in a viscous fluid rotating on a sphere has been studied. The solution contains unknown constants which may be evaluated in particular cases applying the boundary conditions.     

Turbulent mixing in a rotating,stratified fluid

Abstract

An experimental study was carried out to investigate the effect of rotation on turbulent mixing in a stratified fluid when the turbulence in the mixed layer is generated by an oscillating grid. Two types of experiments were carried out: one of them is concerned with the deepening of the upper mixed layer in a stable, two-fluid system, and the other deals with the interaction between a stabilizing buoyancy flux and turbulence.

In the first type of experiments, it was found that rotation suppresses entrainment at larger Rossby numbers. As the Rossby number becomes smaller (Ro 0.1), the entrainment rate increases with rotation—the onset of this phenomenon, however, was found to coincide with the appearance of coherent vortices within the mixed layer. The radiation of energy from the mixed layer to the lower non-turbulent layer was found to occur and the magnitude of the energy flux was found to be increased with the rotational frequency. It was also observed that vortices are generated, rather abruptly, in the lower layer as the mixed layer deepens.

In the second set of experiments a quasi-steady mixed layer was found to develop of which the thickness varies with rotation in a fashion that is consistent with the result of the first experiment. Also the rotation was found to delay the formation of a pycnocline.     

Wave propagation in a rotating fluid of spherical configuration

Abstract

An asymptotic approximation to the solution of the time-dependent linearized equations governing the motion of an incompressible, inviscid rotating fluid of spherical configuration having uniform density, variable depth and a free upper surface is obtained using the ray method without a shallow water assumption. This result is then modified to obtain a ray approximation to the solution of the time-reduced problem and the free oscillations of the fluid are studied. Axisymmetric modes covering the whole sphere and asymmetric modes trapped in both equatorial and non-equatorial regions are discovered, and all these modes are shown to have countably many resonance frequencies. A shallow water limit is defined and this limit of the time-reduced approximation is obtained. Most of the modes of free oscillation are lost in this limit and the limiting axisymmetric modes are shown to be trapped in the equatorial region and are singular at the wave region boundaries. The limiting approximation is compared to previous results obtained under a shallow water assumption.     

Internal waves in a randomly stratified fluid

Abstract

We discuss the propagation of internal waves in a rotating stratified unbounded fluid with randomly varying stability frequency, N. The first order smoothing approximation is used to derive the dispersion relation for the mean wave field when N is of the form N ² = N _o ²(1 + ?μ), where μ is a centered stationary random function of either depth (z) or time (t), N _o = constant and O < ?² ≦ 1. Expressions are then derived for the change in phase speed and growth rate due to the random fluctuations μ; in particular, attention is focused on the behaviour of these expressions for short and long correlation lengths (case μ = μ(z)) and times (case μ = μ(t)). For the case μ = μ(z), which represents a model for the temperature and salinity fine-structure in the ocean, the appropriate statistics of the fluctuations observed at station P (50°N, 145°W) have been incorporated into the theory to estimate the actual importance of the effects due to these random fluctuations. It is found that the phase speed of the mean wave decreases significantly if (i) the wavelength is short compared to g/N_o ² or (ii) the wave number vector is essentially horizontal and the wave frequency is very close to N _o. Also, the random fluctuations cause a significant growth (decay) in the amplitude of a wave propagating upwards (downwards) through a depth of a few kilometers. However, in the direction of energy propagation, the kinetic energy is conserved. Finally, it is shown that the average effect of the depth dependent fluctuations at station P is to slightly decrease the stability frequency and the magnitude of the group velocity.