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Redistribution of Energy during Horizontal Stretching of Ocean Vortices by Barotropic Currents

  • MARINE PHYSICS
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Oceanology Aims and scope

Abstract

The paper proposes a study of the transformation of the physical properties of mesoscale vortices during their strong elongation by horizontal barotropic currents. It is shown that when the core is pulled out, the kinetic and available potential energies of the vortex individually, as well as their sum (the total mechanical energy of the vortex) decreases, and the vortex itself degrades in all physical parameters. The decrease in the energy of the ensemble of vortices when they are pulled out by the background flow is interpreted as a manifestation of the reverse energy cascade property or, in older terminology, the phenomenon of negative viscosity.

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Funding

This work was supported within the framework of the Russian Science Foundation project 22-17-00264 and partially within the framework of the state task no. 0128-2021-0002.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    V. V. Zhmur

  2. Marchuk Institue of Numerical Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    V. V. Zhmur

  3. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University), Moscow, Russia

    D. A. Harutyunyan

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  1. V. V. Zhmur
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  2. D. A. Harutyunyan
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Correspondence to V. V. Zhmur.

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Zhmur, V.V., Harutyunyan, D.A. Redistribution of Energy during Horizontal Stretching of Ocean Vortices by Barotropic Currents. Oceanology 63, 1–16 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001437023010186

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001437023010186

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