A baroclinic instability is a fluid dynamical instability of fundamental importance in the atmosphere and ocean. It can lead to the formation of transient mesoscale eddies, with a horizontal scale of 10-100 km. [1][2] In contrast, flows on the largest scale in the ocean are described as ocean currents, the largest scale eddies are mostly created by shearing of two ocean currents and static mesoscale eddies are formed by the flow around an obstacle (as seen in the animation on eddy (fluid dynamics). [2][3] Mesoscale eddies are circular currents with swirling motion and account for approximately 90% of the ocean's total kinetic energy. [4][5] Therefore, they are key in mixing and transport of for example heat, salt and nutrients.
In a baroclinic medium, the density depends on both the temperature and pressure. [6] The effect of the temperature on the density allows lines of equal density (isopycnals) and lines of equal pressure (isobars) to intersect. This is in contrast to a barotropic fluid, in which the density is only a function of pressure. For this barotropic case, isobars and isopycnals are parallel. The intersecting of isobars and isopycnals in a baroclinic medium may cause baroclinic instabilities to occur by the process of sloping convection. The sizes of baroclinic instabilities and therefore also the eddies they create scale with the Rossby radius of deformation, which strongly varies with latitude for the ocean.
^GFDL NOAA. "Ocean Mesoscale Eddies". Retrieved 5 June 2021.
^ abGeorge, Tom M.; Manucharyan, Georgy E.; Thompson, Andrew F. (2021-02-05). "Deep learning to infer eddy heat fluxes from sea surface height patterns of mesoscale turbulence". Nature Communications. 12 (1): 800. Bibcode:2021NatCo..12..800G. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20779-9. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 7865057. PMID 33547299.
^NOAA (26 February 2021). "What is an eddy?". Retrieved 5 June 2021.
^Wunsch, Carl; Ferrari, Raffaele (January 2004). "Vertical Mixing, Energy, and the General Circulation of the Oceans". Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. 36 (1): 281–314. Bibcode:2004AnRFM..36..281W. doi:10.1146/annurev.fluid.36.050802.122121. ISSN 0066-4189.
^Venaille, Antoine; Vallis, Geoffrey K.; Smith, K. Shafer (2011-09-01). "Baroclinic Turbulence in the Ocean: Analysis with Primitive Equation and Quasigeostrophic Simulations". Journal of Physical Oceanography. 41 (9): 1605–1623. Bibcode:2011JPO....41.1605V. doi:10.1175/jpo-d-10-05021.1. ISSN 0022-3670.
^"International geophysics series", An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology, International Geophysics, vol. 88, Elsevier, 2004, pp. 531–535, doi:10.1016/s0074-6142(04)80057-3, ISBN 978-0-12-354015-7, retrieved 2021-05-17
and 26 Related for: Baroclinic instabilities in the ocean information
A baroclinicinstability is a fluid dynamical instability of fundamental importance inthe atmosphere and ocean. It can lead to the formation of transient...
Baroclinicinstability is a fluid dynamical instability of fundamental importance inthe atmosphere and intheoceans. Inthe atmosphere it is the dominant...
Atlantic oceans as the post-tropical stage), will invariably form or connect with nearby fronts and/or troughs consistent with a baroclinic system. Due...
initial stage of the intensive deepening of the chimney, when thebaroclinicinstability effects are assumed to be unimportant, the depth can be found...
confirmed the existence of oceanic Rossby waves. Baroclinic waves also generate significant displacements of theoceanic thermocline, often of tens of...
corresponds to a lack of fronts, as inthe tropics. If there are fronts, the flow is baroclinic, and instabilities such as cyclones can occur. Coriolis...
condensation and latent heat release upon barotropic and baroclinicinstabilities of vortices in a rotating shallow water f-plane model" (PDF). Geophysical...
barotropic and baroclinic. Barotropic Rossby waves have the highest speeds and do not vary vertically. Baroclinic Rossby waves are much slower. The special identifying...
conditions. When the density contrast has diminished between the air masses, for instance after flowing out over a uniformly warm ocean, the front can degenerate...
currents in a baroclinicocean; with application to the equatorial currents of the eastern Pacific". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United...
Other research concerned the eddy (fluid dynamics) energy intheocean and shear flow instabilitiesinthe western Pacific Ocean. His publications comprise...
through thebaroclinicinstability of the thermal wind currents. This instability flattens the density surfaces and the transport towards the poles, resulting...
condensation and latent heat release upon barotropic and baroclinicinstabilities of vortices in a rotating shallow water f-plane model" (PDF). Geophysical...
distance. Also called baroclinic flow, the thermal wind varies with height in proportion to the horizontal temperature gradient. The thermal wind relation...
instabilities. Where stratification is more substantial, baroclinicinstabilities (misalignment of isobars and isopycnals) are the mean cause of the formation...
move across the tropical Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans during the warm season. The jet exhibits both barotropic and baroclinicinstability, which produces...
influenced by propagating westward oceanic Rossby wave. It is observed that a baroclinic Rossby wave propagating westward across the Caribbean Sea, oscillating...
in any 50-year period, including both convective events and extra-tropical cyclones and other events deriving power from baroclinic sources. Only in 40...
titled “The Dynamics of Long Waves in a Baroclinic Westerly Current” comprised the entire October 1947 issue of the Journal of Meteorology. The paper was...
from which baroclinic and symmetric instabilities can grow. Below the mixed layer, a region of rapid density change (or pycnocline) separates the upper and...
developing geophysical fluid dynamics, including the theories of baroclinicinstability and of ocean circulation driven by wind and buoyancy flux. 2006...
topography. Baroclinicinstabilities form when tilting or sloping of isopycnals (horizontal lines of constant density) form. Baroclinicinstabilities from alongshore...
proposed, involving changes inbaroclinicity, wave breaking, and other releases of instability. Inthe extratropics of the Northern Hemisphere, increasing...
existing baroclinic wave moves over a mountain barrier; this is known as "lee cyclogenesis" since the low forms on the leeward side of the mountains...
synoptic scale features for forecasters and researchers. Baroclinicinstability requires the presence of a potential vorticity gradient along which waves...
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