Final Technical Report on Contract N00014-81-C-0010, 1 October 1980-30 September 1982.
Abstract
Laboratory, theoretical and numerical research was conducted into the structure and stability of baroclinic non-linear currents in a rotating fluid. A rotating version of the dam-break problem in which a density current is generated after a barrier has been removed was studied. Theoretical studies of the stability of a free isolated baroclinic jet whose free surface in cross-section intersects the water surface at two points by Griffiths, Killworth and Stern (1982) was undertaken. Killworth and Stern (1982) showed that a coastal density current in a rotating system is unstable to downstream wave disturbances when the mean potential vorticity increases towards the (vertically-walled) coast and when the mean current vanishes there. Paldor, in his PH.D. Thesis, used Rayleigh integral to prove that an unbounded geostrophic front of uniform potential vorticity is stable with respect to small perturbations of arbitrary wavelength. Stern and Paldor (1983) used extremum concepts to analyze large amplitude disturbances in a boundary layer shear flow with an inviscid and longwave theory. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1983
- Accession Number
- ADA126396
Entities
People
- John A. Whitehead Jr
Organizations
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution