The Generalized Quasilinear Approximation: Application to Zonal Jets

TL;DR

The paper introduces a generalized quasilinear (GQL) approximation that improves modeling of fluid dynamics with large-scale jets by including dynamic mode interactions, enabling more accurate and efficient simulations.

Contribution

It presents a new GQL method that separates scales via spectral filtering, allowing for energy scattering and improved accuracy over traditional quasilinear approaches.

Findings

GQL accurately models large-scale jet dynamics with few modes.

The method conserves energy and allows for non-local spectral interactions.

GQL is suitable for direct statistical simulation in geophysical and astrophysical contexts.

Abstract

Quasilinear theory is often utilized to approximate the dynamics of fluids exhibiting significant interactions between mean flows and eddies. In this paper we present a generalization of quasilinear theory to include dynamic mode interactions on the large scales. This generalized quasilinear (GQL) approximation is achieved by separating the state variables into large and small zonal scales via a spectral filter rather than by a decomposition into a formal mean and fluctuations. Nonlinear interactions involving only small zonal scales are then removed. The approximation is conservative and allows for scattering of energy between small-scale modes via the large scale (through non-local spectral interactions). We evaluate GQL for the paradigmatic problems of the driving of large-scale jets on a spherical surface and on the beta-plane and show that it is accurate even for a small number of large-scale modes. As this approximation is formally linear in the small zonal scales it allows for the closure of the system and can be utilized in direct statistical simulation schemes that have proved an attractive alternative to direct numerical simulation for many geophysical and astrophysical problems.