Comment

Résumé

Les observations tensiométriques et piézométriques au voisinage du ruisseau des Maurets, dans le bassin du Réal Collobrier, fournissent des informations intéressantes sur les mécanismes hydrologiques en cas de crue. Des mesures au pas de temps hebdomadaire montrent une bonne corrélation entre le débit dans la rivière et le niveau piézométrique au voisinage de celle-ci. D'autre part, on observe que ce niveau ne peut monter que si la pression d'eau dans le sol avant la crue est voisines de zéro. D'autres observations tensiométriques plus détaillées ont été effectuées au pas de temps de la demi-heure. Elles montrent que seules les pluies de fortes intensités peuvent provoquer une montée rapide de la pression positive d'eau du sol (saturation), à condition que cette pression soit très voisine de zéro avant la pluie. Dans ce cas, le gradient vertical de la charge hydraulique est quasi-nul, et des zones saturées contributives apparaissent et se développent, accompagnées de forts débits de crue dans la rivière. Ainsi, même dans des conditions méditerranéennes, les crues peuvent être provoquées par le développement des surfaces saturées contributives au voisinage des rivières. Dans ce cas, sur le bassin étudié, ces surfaces saturées ont une durée de vie très courte.     

Comment on Fofonoff's mode

Abstract

Recently Merkine, Mo and Kalnay (1985) have re-examined the possible existence of Fofonoff's (1954) steady free inertial solution and the role of Fofonoff's mode in numerical circulation models after Veronis (1966). Merkine et al. conclude that the Fofonoff mode does not occur, that such a mode would be barotropically unstable and that resemblances between numerical circulations and Fofonoff's mode are more dependent upon the natures of forcing and dissipation. On the contrary, I suggest that Fofonoff's mode very naturally does emerge and that forcing and dissipation only impede the full realization of Fofonoff's mode. Moreover, statistical mechanical arguments from Salmon, Holloway and Hendershott (1976) show that the Fofonoff mode is expected to co-exist with a transient eddy field whose statistics are in equilibrium with the mode; thus bartotropic instability does not argue for non-realization of Fofonoff's mode.     

Comment on rotating hydraulics

Abstract

Numerical solutions of the axisymmetric flows during the relatively early phase of spin-up from rest of a stratified fluid in a cylinder are presented. Detailed results are given for a cylinder of aspect ratio of O(l) and for a minute Ekman number, showing axisymmetric spin-up for three values of the stratification parameter. As the stratification increases, the meridional circulation is confined to a region closer to the Ekman layers. An axisymmetric shear wave propagates radially inward from the sidewall, but, unlike the strictly vertical front for a homogeneous fluid, the interface which separates rotating from nonrotating fluid is bow-shaped. For a stratified fluid, the axial vorticity distribution is nonuniform both in the vertical and in the radial directions. With increasing stratification, diffusive vorticity production near the sidewall is more pronounced. Axisymmetric flows in the early phase of spin-up of a stratified fluid are controlled by both the inviscid dynamic effect and the viscous diffusion effect. At a location close to the Ekman layers, the inviscid effect outweighs the viscous effect, in much the same way as in a homogeneous fluid. However, at a location close to mid-depth, the viscous diffusion effect, enhanced by substantial flow gradients in that region, is dominant. This points to the necessity of including the direct effect of viscous diffusion in the interior in formulating an analytical model of stratified spin-up problems.     

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