Energy stability of the Charney-DeVore quasi-geostrophic equation for atmospheric blocking

Charney and DeVore [J. Atmos. Sci. 36 (1979), 1205-1216] found multiple equilibrium states as a consequence of bottom topography in their pioneering work on the quasi-geostrophic barotropic flow over topography in a β-plane channel. In the present paper, we prove that the basic flow is asymptotically stable in a parameter region, including the flat topography situation, which excludes the existence of multiple equilibrium states therein. Moreover, we show that an additional condition on the average zonal force or the average zonal velocity is indispensable to the well-posedness of the Charney–DeVore quasi-geostrophic equation. Coexistence of at least three equilibrium states is confirmed by a pseudo-arclength continuation method for different topographic amplitudes. The stabilities of the equilibrium states are examined by high-resolution direct numerical simulations.

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