Sensitivity of the Multiple Equilibria to Gorverning System, Mode Chosen and Parameter

Multiple equilibria of a forced, dissipative atmosphere system studied by Charney andothers have provided a new insight into the dynamics of the atmospheric circulation. But thetheoretical results remain some uncertainty for different approaches. Charney and Devore (1979) obtained two stable equilibria for certain range of externalforcing in the barotropic model, one of which is a high--index circulation, and the other alow--index for a blocking state. However Charney and Straus (1980) found that only thelow--index (blocking) state is stable and there do not exist multiple equilibria in the baroclinicmodel.