Explicit invariant solutions associated with nonlinear atmospheric flows in a thin rotating spherical shell with and without west-to-east jets perturbations

Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Ibragimov, Ranis;Jefferson, Grace;Carminati, John
Abstract

A class of non-stationary exact solutions of two-dimensional nonlinear Navier–Stokes (NS) equations within a thin rotating spherical shell were found as invariant and approximately invariant solutions. The model is used to describe a simple zonally averaged atmospheric circulation caused by the difference in temperature between the equator and the poles. Coriolis effects are generated by pseudoforces, which support the stable west-to-east flows providing the achievable meteorological flows. The model is superimposed by a stationary latitude dependent flow. Under the assumption of no friction, the perturbed model describes zonal west-to-east flows in the upper atmosphere between the Ferrel and Polar cells. In terms of nonlinear modeling for the NS equations, two small parameters are chosen for the viscosity and the rate of the earth’s rotation and exact solutions in terms of elementary functions are found using approximate symmetry analysis. It is shown that approximately invariant solutions are also valid in the absence of the flow perturbation to a zonally averaged mean flow.

Journal

Analysis and Mathematical Physics

Publication Name

Analysis and Mathematical Physics

Volume

3

ISBN/ISSN

1664-235X

Edition

N/A

Issue

4

Pages Count

17

Location

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Publisher

Birkhaeuser Science

Publisher Url

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Publisher Location

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Publish Date

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Url

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Date

N/A

EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.1007/s13324-013-0062-9