TY - JOUR
T1 - The ubiquitous zonal jets in the atmospheres of giant planets and Earth's oceans
AU - Galperin, Boris
AU - Nakano, Hideyuki
AU - Huang, Huei Ping
AU - Sukoriansky, Semion
PY - 2004/7/16
Y1 - 2004/7/16
N2 - Recent eddy-permitting simulations of the North Pacific Ocean have revealed robust patterns of multiple zonal jets that visually resemble the zonal jets on giant planets. We argue that this resemblance is more than just visual because the energy spectrum of the oceanic jets obeys a power law that fits spectra of zonal flows on the outer planets. Remarkably, even the non-dimensional proportionality coefficient, CZ, determined by data under that spectral law, appears to be constant for all cases and approximately equal to 0.5. These results indicate that the multiple jet sets in the ocean and in the atmospheres of giant planets are governed by the same dynamics characterized by an anisotropic inverse energy cascade, i.e., the flow of energy from isotropic small-scale eddies to anisotropic large-scales structures, as well as the unique anisotropic spectrum. Implications of these results for climate research and future designs of observational missions are discussed.
AB - Recent eddy-permitting simulations of the North Pacific Ocean have revealed robust patterns of multiple zonal jets that visually resemble the zonal jets on giant planets. We argue that this resemblance is more than just visual because the energy spectrum of the oceanic jets obeys a power law that fits spectra of zonal flows on the outer planets. Remarkably, even the non-dimensional proportionality coefficient, CZ, determined by data under that spectral law, appears to be constant for all cases and approximately equal to 0.5. These results indicate that the multiple jet sets in the ocean and in the atmospheres of giant planets are governed by the same dynamics characterized by an anisotropic inverse energy cascade, i.e., the flow of energy from isotropic small-scale eddies to anisotropic large-scales structures, as well as the unique anisotropic spectrum. Implications of these results for climate research and future designs of observational missions are discussed.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=4644303735&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1029/2004GL019691
DO - 10.1029/2004GL019691
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:4644303735
SN - 0094-8276
VL - 31
SP - L13303 1-5
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
IS - 13
ER -