Equatorial Jets in Decaying Shallow-Water Turbulence on a Rotating Sphere

Abstract

Abstract Ensemble experiments of decaying shallow-water turbulence on a rotating sphere are performed to confirm the robustness of the emergence of an equatorial jet. While previous studies have reported that the equatorial jets emerging in shallow-water turbulence are always retrograde, predominance of a prograde jet, although less likely, was also found in the present ensemble experiments. Furthermore, a zonal-mean flow induced by wave–wave interactions was examined using a weak nonlinear model to investigate the acceleration mechanisms of the equatorial jet. The second-order acceleration is induced by the Rossby and mixed Rossby–gravity waves and its mechanisms can be categorized into two types. First, the local meridional wavenumber of a Rossby wave packet propagating toward the equator increases because of meridional variation of the Rossby deformation radius and/or the retrograde zonal-mean flow, resulting in a dissipation of the wave packet in the equatorial region. This mechanism always contributes to retrograde acceleration of an equatorial jet. Another mechanism is derived from the tilting of equatorial waves due to meridional shear of the zonal-mean flow. In this case, zonal-mean flow acceleration contributes to the intensification of a given basic flow.