Towards a Better Understanding of Rotating Turbulent Convection in Geo- and Astrophysical Systems

Turbulent rotating convection occurs in many geo- and astrophysical bodies, but it is still far from being well understood. Here, we review some recent findings in this field which were obtained using the JUQUEEN system. We present results revealing that tiny viscous boundary layers, so-called Ekman layers, are much more important in rapidly rotating convection than previously thought. We also discuss evidence for upscale kinetic energy transport generating large-scale, coherent structures in rotating convection. Finally, we briefly discuss the geo- and astrophysically relevant case of convective systems in which the fluid parcels in the deeper parts of the convective region get compressed significantly by the weight of the overlying fluid. We show that in the presence of rotation, such compressibility effects can drive alternating jets similar to those observed on Jupiter and other giant planets