Geophysical Fluid Dynamics: Whence, Whither and Why?

This article discusses the role of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (GFD) in understanding the natural environment, and in particular the dynamics of atmospheres and oceans on Earth and elsewhere. GFD, as usually understood, is a branch of the geosciences that deals with fl uid dynamics and that, by tradition, seeks to extract the bare essence of a phenomenon, omitting detail where possible. The geosciences in general deal with complex interacting systems and in some ways resemble condensed matter physics or aspects of biology, where we seek explanations of phenomena at a higher level than simply directly calculating the interactions of all the constituent parts. That is, we try to develop theories or make simple models of the behaviour of the system as a whole. However, these days in many geophysical systems of interest, we can also obtain information for how the system behaves by almost direct numerical simulation from the governing equations. The numerical model itself then explicitly predicts the emergent phenomena – the Gulf Stream for example – something that is still usually impossible in biology or condensed matter physics. Such simulations, as manifested for example in complicated General Circulation Models, have in some ways been extremely successful and one may reasonably now ask whether understanding a complex geophysical system is necessary for predicting it. In what follows we discuss such issues and the roles that GFD has played in the past and will play in the future.The work was funded by the Royal Society (Wolfson Foundation), NERC, NSF, and the Newton Fund

Cloud/climate sensitivity experiments

A study of the relationships between large-scale cloud fields and large scale circulation patterns is presented. The basic tool is a multi-level numerical model comprising conservation equations for temperature, water vapor and cloud water and appropriate parameterizations for evaporation, condensation, precipitation and radiative feedbacks. Incorporating an equation for cloud water in a large-scale model is somewhat novel and allows the formation and advection of clouds to be treated explicitly. The model is run on a two-dimensional, vertical-horizontal grid with constant winds. It is shown that cloud cover increases with decreased eddy vertical velocity, decreased horizontal advection, decreased atmospheric temperature, increased surface temperature, and decreased precipitation efficiency. The cloud field is found to be well correlated with the relative humidity field except at the highest levels. When radiative feedbacks are incorporated and the temperature increased by increasing CO2 content, cloud amounts decrease at upper-levels or equivalently cloud top height falls. This reduces the temperature response, especially at upper levels, compared with an experiment in which cloud cover is fixed

Atmospheric response to SST anomalies. Part 1: Background-state dependence, teleconnections and local effects in winter

This is the final version. Available from American Meteorological Society via the DOI in this recordThe atmospheric response to SST anomalies is notoriously difficult to simulate and may be sensitive to model details and biases, particularly in midlatitudes. Studies have suggested that the response is particularly sensitive to a model’s background wind field and its variability. The dependence on such factors has meant that it is difficult to know what responses, if any, are robust, and whether the system itself is sensitive or whether models themselves are failing. Our goal in this work is to better understand the geographical and seasonal dependence of the atmospheric response to SST anomalies, with particular attention to the role of the background state. We examine the response of an idealized atmospheric model to SST anomalies using two slightly different configurations of continents and topography. These configurations give rise to different background wind fields and variability within the same season, and therefore give a measure of how robust a response is to small changes in the background-state. We find that many of the midlatitude SST anomalies considered do not produce responses that are common across our model configurations, confirming that this problem is very sensitive to the background state. Local responses in the tropics, however, are much more robust. Some of the basic-state dependence seen in midlatitudes appears to be related to the structure of both the model’s modes of internal variability and the stationary-wave field. In addition, midlatitude responses involving a significant amount of vertical temperature advection produce larger-scale responses, consistent with recent studies of atmospheric responses near strong western-boundary currents.SIT is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant number NE/M006123/1), and GKV acknowledges support from the Royal Society (Wolfson Foundation), the Leverhulme Trust and the Newton Fund

Equilibration of a baroclinic planetary atmosphere toward the limit of vanishing bottom friction

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Meteorological Society via the DOI in this record.This paper discusses whether and how a baroclinic atmosphere can equilibrate with very small bottom friction in a dry, primitive equation, general circulation model. The model is forced by a Newtonian relaxation of temperature to a prescribed temperature profile, and it is damped by a linear friction near the lower boundary. When friction is decreased by four orders of magnitude, kinetic energy dissipation by friction gradually becomes negligible,while “energy recycling” becomes dominant. In this limit kinetic energy is converted back into potential energy at the largest scales, thus closing the energy cycle without significant frictional dissipation. The momentum fluxes are of opposite sign in the upper and lower atmosphere: in the upper atmosphere, eddies converge momentum into the westerly jets, however, in the lower atmosphere, the eddies diverge momentum out of the westerly jets. The secondary circulation driven by the meridional eddy momentum fluxes thus acts to increase the baroclinicity of the westerly jet. This regime may be relevant for the Jovian atmosphere, where the frictional time scale may be much larger than the radiative damping time scale.This work was funded by the NSF under grant 656 AGS-1144302 and the NOAA under grant NA08OAR4320752

Optimally coherent sets in geophysical flows: A new approach to delimiting the stratospheric polar vortex

The "edge" of the Antarctic polar vortex is known to behave as a barrier to the meridional (poleward) transport of ozone during the austral winter. This chemical isolation of the polar vortex from the middle and low latitudes produces an ozone minimum in the vortex region, intensifying the ozone hole relative to that which would be produced by photochemical processes alone. Observational determination of the vortex edge remains an active field of research. In this letter, we obtain objective estimates of the structure of the polar vortex by introducing a new technique based on transfer operators that aims to find regions with minimal external transport. Applying this new technique to European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-40 three-dimensional velocity data we produce an improved three-dimensional estimate of the vortex location in the upper stratosphere where the vortex is most pronounced. This novel computational approach has wide potential application in detecting and analysing mixing structures in a variety of atmospheric, oceanographic, and general fluid dynamical settings

A general method for finding extremal states of Hamiltonian dynamical systems, with applications to perfect fluids

In addition to the Hamiltonian functional itself, non-canonical Hamiltonian dynamical systems generally possess integral invariants known as ‘Casimir functionals’. In the case of the Euler equations for a perfect fluid, the Casimir functionals correspond to the vortex topology, whose invariance derives from the particle-relabelling symmetry of the underlying Lagrangian equations of motion. In a recent paper, Vallis, Carnevale & Young (1989) have presented algorithms for finding steady states of the Euler equations that represent extrema of energy subject to given vortex topology, and are therefore stable. The purpose of this note is to point out a very general method for modifying any Hamiltonian dynamical system into an algorithm that is analogous to those of Vallis etal. in that it will systematically increase or decrease the energy of the system while preserving all of the Casimir invariants. By incorporating momentum into the extremization procedure, the algorithm is able to find steadily-translating as well as steady stable states. The method is applied to a variety of perfect-fluid systems, including Euler flow as well as compressible and incompressible stratified flow

The Impact of Parameterized Convection on Climatological Precipitation in Atmospheric Global Climate Models

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.Convective parameterizations are widely believed to be essential for realistic simulations of the atmosphere. However, their deficiencies also result in model biases. The role of convection schemes in modern atmospheric models is examined using Selected Process On/Off Klima Intercomparison Experiment (SPOOKIE) simulations without parameterized convection and forced with observed sea surface temperatures. Convection schemes are not required for reasonable climatological precipitation. However, they are essential for reasonable daily precipitation and restraining extreme daily precipitation that otherwise develops. Systematic effects on lapse rate and humidity are likewise modest compared with the inter-model spread. Without parameterized convection Kelvin waves are more realistic. An unexpectedly large moist Southern Hemisphere storm track bias is identified. This storm track bias persists without convection schemes, as does the double intertropical convergence zone and excessive ocean precipitation biases. This suggests that model biases originate from processes other than convection or that convection schemes are missing key processes.PM, GKV and PGS are funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and Met Office as part of the EuroClim project (grant number NE/M006123/1), ParaCon project (grant number NE/N013123/1) and the Royal Society (Wolfson Foundation). MJW is supported by the Joint UK BEIS/Defra Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme number GA01101. SCS acknowledges the Australian Research Council (grant number FL150100035)

Generalized Quasilinear Approximation: Application to Zonal Jets

Quasilinear theory is often utilized to approximate the dynamics of fluids exhibiting significant interactions between mean flows and eddies. We present a generalization of quasilinear theory to include dynamic mode interactions on the large scales. This generalized quasilinear (GQL) approximation is achieved by separating the state variables into large and small zonal scales via a spectral filter rather than by a decomposition into a formal mean and fluctuations. Nonlinear interactions involving only small zonal scales are then removed. The approximation is conservative and allows for scattering of energy between small-scale modes via the large scale (through nonlocal spectral interactions). We evaluate GQL for the paradigmatic problems of the driving of large-scale jets on a spherical surface and on the beta plane and show that it is accurate even for a small number of large-scale modes. As GQL is formally linear in the small zonal scales, it allows for the closure of the system and can be utilized in direct statistical simulation schemes that have proved an attractive alternative to direct numerical simulation for many geophysical and astrophysical problems

The backbone of the climate network

We propose a method to reconstruct and analyze a complex network from data generated by a spatio-temporal dynamical system, relying on the nonlinear mutual information of time series analysis and betweenness centrality of complex network theory. We show, that this approach reveals a rich internal structure in complex climate networks constructed from reanalysis and model surface air temperature data. Our novel method uncovers peculiar wave-like structures of high energy flow, that we relate to global surface ocean currents. This points to a major role of the oceanic surface circulation in coupling and stabilizing the global temperature field in the long term mean (140 years for the model run and 60 years for reanalysis data). We find that these results cannot be obtained using classical linear methods of multivariate data analysis, and have ensured their robustness by intensive significance testing.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

The roles of latent heating and dust in the structure and variability of the northern Martian polar vortex

The winter polar vortices on Mars are annular in terms of their potential vorticity (PV) structure, a phenomenon identified in observations, reanalysis and some numerical simulations. Some recent modeling studies have proposed that condensation of atmospheric carbon dioxide at the winter pole is a contributing factor to maintaining the annulus through the release of latent heat. Dust and topographic forcing are also known to be causes of internal and interannual variability in the polar vortices. However, coupling between these factors remains uncertain, and previous studies of their impact on vortex structure and variability have been largely limited to a single Martian global climate model (MGCM). Here, by further developing a novel MGCM, we decompose the relative roles of latent heat and dust as drivers for the variability and structure of the northern Martian polar vortex. We also consider how Martian topography modifies the driving response. By also analyzing a reanalysis dataset we show that there is significant dependence in the polar vortex structure and variability on the observations assimilated. In both model and reanalysis, high atmospheric dust loading (such as that seen during a global dust storm) can disrupt the vortex, cause the destruction of PV in the low-mid altitudes (> 0.1 hPa), and significantly reduce spatial and temporal vortex variability. Through our simulations, we find that the combination of dust and topography primarily drives the eddy activity throughout the Martian year, and that although latent heat release can produce an annular vortex, it has a relatively minor effect on vortex variability.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, The Planetary Science Journa