Scaling laws and force balances in rotating convection: are they consistent?

Michael Calkins
University of Colorado Boulder

Predicting transport quantities in rotating convection typically means deriving a scaling law from dominant balances in the governing equations. Because rotating convection is characterized by a leading order geostrophic force balance, it is necessary to use higher order balances appearing in, for example, the vorticity equation. While these dominant balance arguments are appealing, it is less clear that they accurately describe the observed dynamics. I will discuss our efforts to make the connection between dominant balances in the equations and the observed scaling laws using data from direct numerical simulations in planar and spherical geometries, and the asymptotic model of rotating convection in the plane layer geometry.

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