Optimal Mixing On The Sphere

Abstract

The mixing of tracers on the surface of a sphere has many geophysical applications from the advection of volcanic ash to the global redistribution of temperature and angular momentum by atmospheric general circulation. Due to the difficulties of spherical geometry, such as the poles and the isotropy between the meridional and zonal directions, previous work on optimal mixing focuses instead on the d-dimensional torus [5, 7, 8]. Here we are motivated by the geophysical problem of temperature redistribution over the surface of the sphere given a heat source at the equator and cooling at the poles. What flow most efficiently mixes the temperature field and how do the characteristics of these optimal flows compare to similar flows on the torus?

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 10, 2010
Accession Number
ADA558584

Entities

People

  • Amanda K. O'rourke

Organizations

  • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Advection
  • Algorithms
  • Angular Momentum
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Differential Equations
  • Diffusion
  • Equations
  • Flow Fields
  • Geometry
  • Latitude
  • Mixing
  • Momentum
  • Spherical Harmonics
  • Stagnation Point
  • Steady State
  • Stratified Fluids
  • Turbulent Mixing

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Graph Algorithms and Convex Optimization.