Because large-scale, low-frequency motions in the ocean and atmosphere are in approximate geostrophic balance, geostrophic turbulence, and its even simpler progenitor two-dimensional turbulence, is a useful “toy model” for oceanic and atmospheric motions. We have shown that the nonlinearities in geostrophic turbulence can drive a nonlinear transfer of energy to lower frequencies alongside the well-known inverse cascade to lower wave numbers (larger spatial scales; Arbic et al. JPO 2012, 2014). The implication is that the spectral tools usually used to diagnose energy cascades in the wavenumber domain, can potentially be used to quantify the importance of intrinsic (versus forced) processes in the variable atmosphere-ocean system. Several completed and ongoing projects in our group and with external collaborators (see papers below) have followed up on this initial work.

Our research focuses on the use of numerical models to better understand the dynamics and energy budgets of both wind- and tidally-forced flows in the ocean.

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