Numerical investigation of inertia gravity-wave activity in the differentially heated rotating annulus: The impact of boundary conditions

The differentially heated rotating annulus is a classic experiment used for the examination of circulation patterns and waves in the atmosphere. In particular, by choosing an atmosphere-like experimental setup that allows the buoyancy frequency to become larger than the Coriolis parameter, it provides a useful tool to study the generation mechanism of spontaneous gravity wave (GW) emission in jet-front systems. Recently, with the aim to gain better understanding about the conditions for the spontaneous generation of GWs, Rodda et al. (2020) compared experimental data with results from numerical simulations and found differences in the GW signal most likely due to the model's treatment of boundary conditions. The aim of the present study is to improve the consistency between the model and experiment and to investigate the effect of the lateral and upper boundary conditions on GW generation and propagation in an atmosphere-like configuration of the annulus. More precisely, we implement the corresponding lateral and surface heat fluxes, air-temperature variations, as well as evaporation at the upper boundary condition into the numerical model and examine the characteristics of the observed GW signals, which are identified by the horizontal divergence field. Our systematic analysis may serve as a basis for subsequent research on the spontaneous GW generation mechanism, following the overarching objective to develop a parameterization scheme for GWs emitted from jets and front.

 

References:

Rodda, C., S. Hien, U. Achatz, and U. Harlander, 2020: A new atmospheric-like differentially heated rotating annulus configuration to study gravity wave emission from jets and fronts. Exp. Fluids 61, 2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-019-2825-z