Related papers: Zonal Flow as Pattern Formation
Plasma turbulence described by the Hasegawa-Wakatani equations has been simulated numerically for different models and values of the adiabaticity parameter C. It is found that for low values of C turbulence remains isotropic, zonal flows…
Solitary zonal structures have recently been identified in gyrokinetic simulations of subcritical drift-wave (DW) turbulence with background shear flows. However, the nature of these structures has not been fully understood yet. Here, we…
A cylinder undergoes precession when it rotates around its axis and this axis itself rotates around another direction. In a precessing cylinder full of fluid, a steady and axisymmetric component of the azimuthal flow is generally present.…
The dynamics of the radial envelope of a weak coherent drift wave is approximately governed by a nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, which emerges as a limit of the modified Hasegawa-Mima equation. The nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation has…
In homogeneous drift-wave (DW) turbulence, zonal flows (ZFs) can be generated via a modulational instability (MI) that either saturates monotonically or leads to oscillations of the ZF energy at the nonlinear stage. This dynamics is often…
The generation of large-scale zonal flows by small-scale electrostatic drift waves in electron temperature gradient(ETG) driven turbulence model is considered. The generation mechanism is based on the modulational instability of a finite…
This paper starts from the far-field behaviours of velocity field in externally-unbounded flow. We find that the well-known algebraic decay of disturbance velocity as derived kinematically is too conservative. Once the kinetics is taken…
In the present work the generation of zonal flows in collisionless trapped electron mode (TEM) turbulence is studied analytically. A reduced model for TEM turbulence is utilized based on an advanced fluid model for reactive drift waves. An…
We investigate the drift wave -- zonal flow dynamics in a shearless slab geometry with the new flux-balanced Hasegawa-Wakatani model. As in previous Hasegawa-Wakatani models, we observe a sharp transition from a turbulence dominated regime…
Fully developed turbulence is a universal and scale-invariant chaotic state characterized by an energy cascade from large to small scales where the cascade is eventually arrested by dissipation. In this article, we show how to harness these…
The interaction between planetary waves and an arbitrary zonal flow is studied from a phase-space viewpoint. Using the Wigner distribution, a planetary wave Vlasov equation is derived that includes the contribution of the mean flow to the…
The problem of coherent vortex and zonal jet formation in a system of nonlinear Rossby waves is considered from the point of view of the late time steady state achieved by free decay of a given initial state. Statistical equilibrium…
This paper reports the stability conditions for intense zonal flows (ZFs) and the growth rate $\gamma_{\rm TI}$ of the corresponding "tertiary" instability (TI) within the generalized Hasegawa--Mima plasma model. The analytic calculation…
Zonal flows are often found in rotating convective systems. Not only are these jet-flows driven by the convection, they can also have a profound effect on the nature of the convection. In this work the cylindrical annulus geometry is…
We present a theory of the nonlinear growth of zonal flows in magnetized plasma turbulence, by the mechanism of secondary instability. The theory is derived for general magnetic geometry, and is thus applicable to both tokamaks and…
The dynamics, structure and stability of zonal jets in planetary flows are still poorly understood, especially in terms of coupling with the small-scale turbulent flow. Here, we use an experimental approach to address the questions of zonal…
Turbulence driven zonal flows play an important role in fusion devices since they improve plasma confinement by limiting the level of anomalous transport. Current theories mostly focus on flow excitation but do not self-consistently…
Geophysical turbulence is observed to self-organize into large-scale flows such as zonal jets and coherent vortices. Previous studies on barotropic beta-plane turbulence have shown that coherent flows emerge out of a background of…
The instability of ideal non-divergent zonal flows on the sphere is determined numerically by the instability criterion of Arnol'd (1966) for the sectional curvature. Zonal flows are unstable for all perturbations besides for a small set…
We find that in parameter regimes relevant to the recently observed alternating zonal jets in oceans, the formation of these jets can be explained as due to an arrest of the turbulent inverse-cascade of energy by {\em free} Rossby waves (as…