Sloping convection in a rotating fluid

Abstract Laboratory experiments on thermal convection in a fluid which rotates about a vertical axis and is subject to a horizontal temperature gradient show that when the rotation rate Ω exceeds a certain critical value ΩR (which depends on the acceleration of gravity, the shape and dimensions of the apparatus, the physical properties of the fluid and the distribution and intensity of the applied differential heating) Coriolis forces inhibit overturning motion in meridian planes and promote a completely different type of flow which has been termed ‘sloping convection’ or ‘baroclinic waves’. The motion is then non-axisymmetric and largely confined to meandering ‘jet streams’, with trajectories of individual fluid elements inclined at only very small (though essentially non-zero) angles to the horizontal. The kinetic energy of the waves derives from the interaction of slight vertical motions with the potential energy field maintained by differential heating, and it is dissipated by friction arising largely...

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