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Mean zonal flows generated by librations of a rotating spherical cavity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2010

F. H. BUSSE
F. H. BUSSE*
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth 95440, Germany
*
†Email address for correspondence: Busse@uni-bayreuth.de
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Abstract

Longitudinal librations represent oscillations about the axis of a rotating axisymmetric fluid-filled cavity. An analytical theory is developed for the case of a spherical cavity in the limit when the libration frequency is small in comparison with the rotation rate, but large in comparison with the inverse of the spin-up time. It is shown that longitudinal librations create a steady zonal flow through the nonlinear advection in the Ekman layers. The theory can be applied to laboratory experiments as well as to solid planets and satellites with a liquid core.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 650 , 10 May 2010 , pp. 505 - 512
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

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