Project on Generalized Stability Theory

We examine the role of interior potential vorticity perturbations in surface frontogenisis using the two dimensional semigeostrophic Eady model. Front form rapidly for properly configured small disturbances even at zonal wavenumbers for which no...

Turbulence in fluids is commonly observed to coexist with relatively large spatial and temporal scale coherent jets. These jets may be steady, vacillate with a definite period, or be irregular. A comprehensive theory for this phenomenon is presented based...

the origin and growth to moderate amplitude of disturbances in shear slow had been traditionally ascribed to the linear modal instability of the flow. Recent work on initial value problems has suggested that nonmodal growth of perturbations may be of...

Properly configured disturbances are known to be effective in transferring the kinetic energy of a mean shear slow to neutrally stable modal and nonmodal waves Consideration of perturbation energetics requires that such oriented against the mean shear...

Explaining the growth of disturbances superimposed on mean flows is a central problem in meteorology. Most widely studied models of the development process involve perturbations to shear flows with shear restricted to the meridional direction. Recently...

This work explores the formation and growth of waves on oceanic flows using a quasigeostrophic model. In participial, we consider flow regimes consisting of zonal oceanic jets, similar in face to the westward extension of the Gulf stream. Traditionally...

Data Assimilation, P. P. Brasseur and J. C. J. Nihoul Eds., Springer-Verlag, Berlin The goal of the project on stability of ocean flows is to develop the theory of linear stability appropriate for understanding the growth of perturbations in dynamical...

Theoretical understanding of the growth of wind-driven surface water waves has been based on two distinct mechanisms: growth due to random atmospheric pressure fluctuations unrelated to wave amplitude and growth due to wave coherent atmospheric pressure...

Understanding the physical mechanism maintaining fluid turbulence remains a fundamental theoretical problem. The two-layer model is an analytically and computationally simple system in which the dynamics of turbulence can be conveniently studied; in this...

Coherent jets, such as the Jovian banded winds, are  prominent feature of rotating turbulence. Shallow water turbulence models capture the essential mechanism of jet formation, which is systematic eddy momentum flux directed up the mean velocity gradient...