Transitions between Blocked and Zonal Flows in a Rotating Annulus with Topography

The mid-latitude atmosphere is dominated by westerly, nearly zonal flow. Occasionally, this flow is deflected poleward by blocking anticyclones that persist for 10 days or longer. Experiments in a rotating annulus used radial pumping to generate a zonal jet under the action of the Coriolis force. In...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1997-11, Vol.278 (5343), p.1598-1601
Main Authors: Weeks, Eric R., Tian, Yudong, Urbach, J. S., Ide, Kayo, Swinney, Harry L., Ghil, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anticyclones
Atmosphere
Atmospheric circulation
Atmospherics
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Flow velocity
Kinetics
Laboratory Experiments
Meteorology
Motion
Numbers
Other topics in atmospheric geophysics
Physics
Pumping
Pumps
Stream functions
Topography
Weather
Zonal flow
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Summary:The mid-latitude atmosphere is dominated by westerly, nearly zonal flow. Occasionally, this flow is deflected poleward by blocking anticyclones that persist for 10 days or longer. Experiments in a rotating annulus used radial pumping to generate a zonal jet under the action of the Coriolis force. In the presence of two symmetric ridges at the bottom of the annulus, the resulting flows were nearly zonal at high forcing or blocked at low forcing. Intermittent switching between blocked and zonal patterns occurs because of the jet's interaction with the topography. These results shed further light on previous atmospheric observations and numerical simulations.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.278.5343.1598