Coriolis instability in coupled atmosphere-ocean LES
Responsible: Jens Fricke
Project type: Diplomarbeit (equivalent to master thesis) (In Cooperation with Igor Esau at ​Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, affiliated with the ​University of Bergen, Norway)
Duration: 01/04/2010-31/03/2011

The Coriolis force does not change the total energy of a flow. However it does affect its hydrodynamic stability with respect to small perturbation and therefore modifies the energy budget indirectly by transferring energy between the three velocity components. In the past, these instability mechanisms (e.g. inflection point instability) have been studied theoretically and numerically, both, in the atmospheric boundary layer (driven by a body pressure force), and the ocean mixed layer (driven by the surface stress). The studies identified very large effects of the Coriolis force on the flow structure.

In this thesis, the effect of the Coriolis force will be studied for the first time for the coupled atmosphere-ocean boundary layer under neutral / freshwater conditions, using coupled PALM simulations for atmosphere and ocean.

Download: Full thesis​