On latency of multiple zonal jets in the oceans

Author Posting. © Cambridge University Press, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of Cambridge University Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics 686 (2011): 534-567, doi:10.1017/jfm.2011.345.Most of the nearly zonal, multiple, alternating jets observed in the oceans are latent, that is, their amplitudes are weak relative to the ambient mesoscale eddies. Yet, relatively strong jets are often observed in dynamical simulations. To explore mechanisms controlling the degree of latency, we analyse solutions of an idealized, eddy-resolving and flat-bottom quasigeostrophic model, in which dynamically generated mesoscale eddies maintain and interact with a set of multiple zonal jets. We find that the degree of the latency is controlled primarily by the bottom friction: the larger the friction parameter, the more latent are the jets; and the degree of the latency is substantial for a realistic range of the oceanic bottom friction coefficient. This result not only provides a plausible explanation for the latency of the oceanic jets, but it may also be relevant to the prominent atmospheric multiple jets observed on giant gas planets, such as Jupiter. We hypothesize that these jets can be so strong because of the relative absence of the bottom friction. The mechanism controlling the latency in our solutions is understood in terms of the changes induced in the linear eigenmodes of the time–mean flow by varying the bottom friction coefficient; these changes, in turn, affect and modify the jets. Effects of large Reynolds numbers on the eddies, jets, and the latency are also discussed.Funding was provided: for P.B. by NSF grants OCE 0725796 and OCE 0845150, for J.T.F. by NSF grant OCE 0845150, for I.K. by NSF grant OCE 0842834, and for S.K. by the University Research Fellowship from the Royal Society. S.K. also acknowledges support from the Mary Sears Grant from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.2012-09-2