Chaos in geophysical fluids I. General introduction

Abstract

Irregular buoyancy-driven flows occur in the atmospheres and fluid interiors of the Earth and other planets, and of the Sun and other stars, where they influence and often control the transfer of heat. Their presence is manifest in or implied by a wide variety of observed phenomena, including external magnetic fields generated by self-exciting magnetohydrodynamic (MHD ) dynamo action. Based on the laws of classical mechanics, thermodynamics and, in the case of electrically conducting fluids, electrodynamics, the governing mathematical equations are well known, but they are generally intractable owing to their essential nonlinearity. Computers play a key role in modern theoretical research in geophysical and astrophysical fluid dynamics, where ideas based on chaos theory are being applied in the analysis of models and the assessment of predictability. The aim of this paper is to provide a largely qualitative survey for non-specialists. The survey comprises two parts, namely a general introduction (Part I) followed by a discussion of two representative areas of research, both concerned with phenomena attributable to symmetry-breaking bifurcations caused by gyroscopic (Coriolis) forces (Part II), namely (a) large-scale waves and eddies in the atmospheres of the Earth, Jupiter and other planets (where, exceptionally, laboratory experiments have been influential), and (b) MHD dynamos. Various combinations of Faraday disc dynamos have been studied numerically as low-dimensional nonlinear electromechanical analogues of MHD dynamos, particularly in efforts to elucidate the complex time series of geomagnetic polarity reversals over geological time. The ability of the intensively studied Rikitake coupled disc dynamo system to behave chaotically appears to be a consequence of the neglect of mechanical friction, the inclusion of which renders the system structurally unstable.