Issue |
A&A
Volume 509, January 2010
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | L11 | |
Number of page(s) | 3 | |
Section | Letters | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200913453 | |
Published online | 28 January 2010 |
Letter to the Editor
Unstable interaction of gravity-inertial waves with Rossby waves with application to solar system atmospheres
1
King's College, University of Cambridge, UK
2
School of Mathematical Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa e-mail: mckenziej@ukzn.ac.za
3
Materials Research Division, iThemba LABS, Somerset West, South Africa e-mail: doyle@tlabs.ac.za
Received:
12
October
2009
Accepted:
12
January
2010
This letter reports on the important features of an analysis of the combined theory of gravity – inertial – Rossby waves on a β-plane in the Boussinesq approximation. In particular, it is shown that the coupling between higher frequency gravity – inertial waves and lower frequency Rossby waves, arising from the accumulated influences of the β effect, stratification characterized by the Väisäla – Brunt frequency N, the Coriolis frequency f, and the component of vertical propagation wave number kz, may lead to an unstable coupling between buoyancy – inertial modes with westward propagating Rossby waves. “Supersonic” fast rotators (such as Jupiter) are predicted to be unstable in a fairly narrow band of latitudes around their equators. The Earth is moderately supersonic and exhibits instability within about 34° of its equator. Slow “subsonic” rotators (e.g. Mercury, Venus, and the Sun's corona) are unstable at all latitudes except those very close to the poles where the β effect vanishes.
Key words: hydrodynamics / instabilities / planets and satellites: atmospheres / waves
© ESO, 2010
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