The effect of barotropic instability on the nonlinear evolution of a Rossby-wave critical layer

Abstract

A study of the flow within the critical layer of a forced Rossby-wave is made, using a high-resolution numerical model. The possibility of growth of disturbances through barotropic instability and the extent to which these disturbances modify the subsequent time evolution is of particular interest. The flow is characterized by a parameter μ, equal to the cross-stream lengthscale divided by a downstream wavelength. In the long-wavelength case, μ [Lt ] 1, where there is a clear conceptual division between the instability and the basic flow, the results of the simulation confirm the importance of the growing and saturating disturbances in rearranging the vorticity within the critical layer. When the wavelength is not so long, the distinction between the instability and the straightforward time evolution of the basic flow is less clear. Nonetheless for μ < 0.25 the ultimate evolution is still sensitive to the details of the initial perturbations and in this sense the flow may be regarded as being unstable. The time-integrated absorptivity of the critical layer may be considerably increased by the effects of the instability, sometimes to three or four times that predicted by the Stewartson-Warn-Warn solution. The nature of the flow, at least during the period in which the dynamics are essentially inviscid, does not seem to change when higher harmonics to the forced wave are resonant. The behaviour seen in Béland's (1976) numerical model is re-examined in the light of these findings. A simple model of the redistribution of vorticity by the unstable disturbances is formulated, and its predictions are shown to agree well with the numerical simulations.