Assessing Transport in the Ocean and Atmosphere: Computational Tools for Predictability and Experimental Design
Abstract
This effort addressed applications of dynamical systems to aperiodic, two-dimensional velocity fields, and improvements in the numerical tools available to perform such analysis. Invariant manifold techniques were used to estimate the extent of mixing in a barotropic meandering jet (Gulf Stream), showing that transport is on the same order as cross-jet transport due to ring detachment. Manifold calculations verified theoretical predictions of separatrix splitting in a viscous perturbation of the barotropic pv equation. In a simulation of an island recirculation, lobe analysis shed light on the importance of chaotic transport relative to Ekman transport. A pv budget was calculated for the gyre using a Lagrangian definition of the recirculation. The results imply that the budget for a time-averaged fixed boundary may typically overestimate the importance of chaotic advection in the overall vorticity budget. The vftool software package went through a major rewrite, including a better ODE solver, improved command-line interface and model input, a greatly expanded and improved Matlab toolbox, and compatibility with several variants of Unix.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 06, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA424272
Entities
People
- Patrick D. Miller
Organizations
- Stevens Institute of Technology