Laboratory simulation of the Kolmogorov flow on a spherical surface

Abstract

The first results of a laboratory simulation of the Kolmogorov flow on a spherical surface are described. The primary laminar regime was found to be a system of zonal laminar jets of alternating directions. When the first critical value is passed, the primary regime loses its stability, and on its background a secondary vortex quasi-periodic regime with low frequency is formed. With a further increase in the Reynolds number and when the second critical value is passed, this vortex regime becomes unstable and self-excited oscillations emerge in the flow. Specifically, it was found that, if the spherical layer radius is chosen as a length scale, the wavelengths of perturbations in the vortex regime fall in the range of maximum intensity in the spectrum of the horizontal component of wind speed at the tropopause level. We explain the maximum peak shift in the wind spectrum on synoptic time scales when the observational height increases from 3000 km in the surface layer up to 8000–10000 km in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere.