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Nonlinear symmetric stability of planetary atmospheres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

John C. Bowman  and
Theodore G. Shepherd
John C. Bowman
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 1A7 Canada Present address: Institute for Fusion Studies, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
Theodore G. Shepherd
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 1A7 Canada
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Abstract

The energy–Casimir method is applied to the problem of symmetric stability in the context of a compressible, hydrostatic planetary atmosphere with a general equation of state. Formal stability criteria for symmetric disturbances to a zonally symmetric baroclinic flow are obtained. In the special case of a perfect gas the results of Stevens (1983) are recovered. Finite-amplitude stability conditions are also obtained that provide an upper bound on a certain positive-definite measure of disturbance amplitude.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 296 , 10 August 1995 , pp. 391 - 407
Copyright
© 1995 Cambridge University Press

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