Structure and dynamics of concentrated mesoscale vortices in planetary atmospheres

Abstract

Abstract Concentrated vortices are spatially localized structures with nonzero vorticity surrounded by a potential flow. These structures include a broad class of mesoscale vortices, such as dust devils, water vortices, and fire vortices, as well as larger-scale and more intense tornados. From a rather broad class of concentrated mesoscale vortices, dust devils are selected as the simplest and most easily observable structures owing to dust particles that play the role of tracers. The aim of this review is to present the main results of studies of dust devils in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars. In the framework of ideal fluid dynamics, a recently proposed model is discussed that allows describing vortex structures that are fully localized in space. The results of numerical modeling of vortex dynamics and an analytic model of vortex generation in a convectively unstable atmosphere are briefly discussed.