Effect of differential diffusion and extrapolated Ekman dissipation on flux constraints on the two-layer quasi-geostrophic model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how differential diffusion and extrapolated Ekman dissipation influence flux constraints in a two-layer quasi-geostrophic model, expanding understanding of energy and enstrophy cascades relevant to atmospheric turbulence spectra.

Contribution

It generalizes previous models by incorporating extrapolated Ekman dissipation and differential small-scale dissipation, providing conditions for flux inequality satisfaction in this more complex setting.

Findings

Derived sufficient conditions for flux inequality compliance.

Analyzed the impact of extrapolated Ekman dissipation on flux constraints.

Discussed how differential dissipation can violate flux inequalities.

Abstract

We continue our investigation of an inequality constraining the energy and potential enstrophy flux spectra in the two-layer quasi-geostrophic model. Its physical significance is that it can diagnose whether any given model that allows coexisting downscale cascades of energy and potential enstrophy can reproduce the Nastrom-Gage spectrum, in terms of the total energy spectrum. This inequality holds unconditionally for two-dimensional turbulence, however it is far from obvious that it generalizes to multi-layer quasi-geostrophic models. In previous work we considered the case of a two-layer quasi-geostrophic model in which the dissipation terms for each layer are dependent only on the streamfunction field of the corresponding layer. We now generalize this configuration as follows: First, following a 1980 paper by Salmon, we use an extrapolated Ekman term at the bottom layer which uses the streamfunction field of both layers to approximate the streamfunction field at the surface boundary layer. Second, for reasons explained in detail in the paper itself, we use small-scale dissipation terms with different hyperviscosity coefficients. Sufficient conditions for satisfying the flux inequality are given under this more general dissipation configuration, and we discuss the potential role of extrapolated Ekman dissipation and differential small-scale dissipation in violating the flux inequality.