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On the retrograde propagation of critical thermal convection in a slowly rotating spherical shell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2010

SHIN-ICHI TAKEHIRO
SHIN-ICHI TAKEHIRO*
Affiliation:
Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
*
†Email address for correspondence: takepiro@gfd-dennou.org
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Abstract

The retrograde propagation mechanism of critical thermal convection with a sectorial pattern emerging in a slowly rotating spherical shell is investigated through vorticity budget analysis. In the equatorial region, stretching and shrinking of the fluid columns in the direction of the axis of rotation due to the radial component of velocity causes retrograde propagation, whereas in the mid-latitudes, tilting of the radial component of planetary vorticity by the radial shear of the latitudinal component of velocity is dominant. The switching of the propagating direction from retrograde to prograde according to the increase in the rotation speed of the shell originates from the transition of the morphology of vortices from the ‘banana-shaped’ type due to the constraint of the spherical geometry to the columnar type due to the Taylor–Proudman constraint. The variation of the morphology of vortices reverses the tendency of stretching/shrinking of fluid columns accompanied by their cylindrically radial displacement.

JFM classification

Convection: Convection Geophysical and Geological Flows: Rotating flows Vortex Flows: Vortex dynamics
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 659 , 25 September 2010 , pp. 505 - 515
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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