Turbulence comes in bursts in stably stratified flows

There is a clear distinction between simple laminar and complex turbulent fluids. But in some cases, as for the nocturnal planetary boundary layer, a stable and well-ordered flow can develop intense and sporadic bursts of turbulent activity which disappear slowly in time. This phenomenon is ill-understood and poorly modeled; and yet, it is central to our understanding of weather and climate dynamics. We present here a simple model which shows that in stably stratified turbulence, the stronger bursts can occur when the flow is expected to be more stable. The bursts are generated by a rapid non-linear amplification of energy stored in waves, and are associated with energetic interchanges between vertical velocity and temperature (or density) fluctuations. Direct numerical simulations on grids of 2048^3 points confirm this somewhat paradoxical result of measurably stronger events for more stable flows, displayed not only in the temperature and vertical velocity derivatives, but also in the amplitude of the fields themselves

Helicity dynamics in stratified turbulence in the absence of forcing

A numerical study of decaying stably-stratified flows is performed. Relatively high stratification and moderate Reynolds numbers are considered, and a particular emphasis is placed on the role of helicity (velocity-vorticity correlations). The problem is tackled by integrating the Boussinesq equations in a periodic cubical domain using different initial conditions: a non-helical Taylor-Green (TG) flow, a fully helical Beltrami (ABC) flow, and random flows with a tunable helicity. We show that for stratified ABC flows helicity undergoes a substantially slower decay than for unstratified ABC flows. This fact is likely associated to the combined effect of stratification and large scale coherent structures. Indeed, when the latter are missing, as in random flows, helicity is rapidly destroyed by the onset of gravitational waves. A type of large-scale dissipative "cyclostrophic" balance can be invoked to explain this behavior. When helicity survives in the system it strongly affects the temporal energy decay and the energy distribution among Fourier modes. We discover in fact that the decay rate of energy for stratified helical flows is much slower than for stratified non-helical flows and can be considered with a phenomenological model in a way similar to what is done for unstratified rotating flows. We also show that helicity, when strong, has a measurable effect on the Fourier spectra, in particular at scales larger than the buoyancy scale for which it displays a rather flat scaling associated with vertical shear

A numerical study of the alpha model for two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulent flows

We explore some consequences of the ``alpha model,'' also called the ``Lagrangian-averaged'' model, for two-dimensional incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. This model is an extension of the smoothing procedure in fluid dynamics which filters velocity fields locally while leaving their associated vorticities unsmoothed, and has proved useful for high Reynolds number turbulence computations. We consider several known effects (selective decay, dynamic alignment, inverse cascades, and the probability distribution functions of fluctuating turbulent quantities) in magnetofluid turbulence and compare the results of numerical solutions of the primitive MHD equations with their alpha-model counterparts' performance for the same flows, in regimes where available resolution is adequate to explore both. The hope is to justify the use of the alpha model in regimes that lie outside currently available resolution, as will be the case in particular in three-dimensional geometry or for magnetic Prandtl numbers differing significantly from unity. We focus our investigation, using direct numerical simulations with a standard and fully parallelized pseudo-spectral method and periodic boundary conditions in two space dimensions, on the role that such a modeling of the small scales using the Lagrangian-averaged framework plays in the large-scale dynamics of MHD turbulence. Several flows are examined, and for all of them one can conclude that the statistical properties of the large-scale spectra are recovered, whereas small-scale detailed phase information (such as e.g. the location of structures) is lost.Comment: 22 pages, 20 figure

Low magnetic Prandtl number dynamos with helical forcing

We present direct numerical simulations of dynamo action in a forced Roberts flow. The behavior of the dynamo is followed as the mechanical Reynolds number is increased, starting from the laminar case until a turbulent regime is reached. The critical magnetic Reynolds for dynamo action is found, and in the turbulent flow it is observed to be nearly independent on the magnetic Prandtl number in the range from 0.3 to 0.1. Also the dependence of this threshold with the amount of mechanical helicity in the flow is studied. For the different regimes found, the configuration of the magnetic and velocity fields in the saturated steady state are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figure

Numerical study of dynamo action at low magnetic Prandtl numbers

We present a three--pronged numerical approach to the dynamo problem at low magnetic Prandtl numbers $P_M$. The difficulty of resolving a large range of scales is circumvented by combining Direct Numerical Simulations, a Lagrangian-averaged model, and Large-Eddy Simulations (LES). The flow is generated by the Taylor-Green forcing; it combines a well defined structure at large scales and turbulent fluctuations at small scales. Our main findings are: (i) dynamos are observed from $P_M=1$ down to $P_M=10^{-2}$; (ii) the critical magnetic Reynolds number increases sharply with $P_M^{-1}$ as turbulence sets in and then saturates; (iii) in the linear growth phase, the most unstable magnetic modes move to small scales as $P_M$ is decreased and a Kazantsev $k^{3/2}$ spectrum develops; then the dynamo grows at large scales and modifies the turbulent velocity fluctuations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Numerical Solutions of the Three-Dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Α Model

We present direct numerical simulations and α-model simulations of four familiar three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence effects: selective decay, dynamic alignment, inverse cascade of magnetic helicity, and the helical dynamo effect. The MHD α model is shown to capture the long-wavelength spectra in all these problems, allowing for a significant reduction of computer time and memory at the same kinetic and magnetic Reynolds numbers. In the helical dynamo, not only does the α model correctly reproduce the growth rate of magnetic energy during the kinematic regime, it also captures the nonlinear saturation level and the late generation of a large scale magnetic field by the helical turbulence

Multifunctional peri-urban agriculture: Some ecosystem services of a sustainable olive grove

This study reports the influence of a sustainable management model which entails the recycling of urban wastewater and distribution by drip irrigation, recycling of polygenic carbon sources internal to the olive orchard (cover crops, pruning material) on yield, soil water holding capacity, soil biodiversity. Sustainable management practices were applied for a 15-year period in a 2-ha olive orchard located in an hilly peri-urban zone of southern Italy, where olive tree represents the dominant crop and has a key role inside the traditional landscape. A comparison between sustainable and conventional management (soil tillage, burning of the pruning residues, mineral fertilization, empirical irrigation) was carried out. This study suggests some guidelines of a sustainable management of peri-urban olive groves, with benefits to the whole agro-ecosystem stability and to the near town, recognizing the multifunctional role of agriculture that enhances the creation of synergies between urban and rural areas

Numerical solutions of the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic alpha-model

We present direct numerical simulations and alpha-model simulations of four familiar three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence effects: selective decay, dynamic alignment, inverse cascade of magnetic helicity, and the helical dynamo effect. The MHD alpha-model is shown to capture the long-wavelength spectra in all these problems, allowing for a significant reduction of computer time and memory at the same kinetic and magnetic Reynolds numbers. In the helical dynamo, not only does the alpha-model correctly reproduce the growth rate of magnetic energy during the kinematic regime, but it also captures the nonlinear saturation level and the late generation of a large scale magnetic field by the helical turbulence.Comment: 12 pages, 19 figure