AI Article Synopsis
- The study examines how passive Lagrangian tracers move in three-dimensional quasigeostrophic turbulence through numerical simulations and compares it to two-dimensional barotropic turbulence.
- Despite the differences in their Eulerian characteristics, the movement of tracers in the two systems shows remarkable similarities, highlighting the impact of coherent vortices on mixing and dispersion.
- The findings suggest that insights gained from studying particle dynamics in two-dimensional barotropic turbulence are applicable to more complex baroclinic flows found in atmospheric and oceanic dynamics.
Article Abstract
The dynamics of passive Lagrangian tracers in three-dimensional quasigeostrophic turbulence is studied numerically and compared with the behavior of two-dimensional barotropic turbulence. Despite the different Eulerian properties of the two flows, the Lagrangian dynamics of passively advected tracers in three-dimensional quasigeostrophic turbulence is very similar to that of barotropic turbulence. In both systems, coherent vortices play a major role in determining the mixing and dispersion properties. This work indicates that recent results on particle dynamics in barotropic, two-dimensional turbulence carry over to more realistic baroclinic flows, such as those encountered in the large-scale dynamics of the atmosphere and ocean.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.084501 | DOI Listing |
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