# Intertial wave turbulence driven by elliptical instability

## TL;DR

This paper uses numerical simulations to explore how elliptical instability leads to inertial wave turbulence in rotating flows, revealing a wave-dominated regime relevant to planetary interiors.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation approach to study the transition from vortex to wave turbulence due to elliptical instability in idealized rotating flows.

## Key findings

- Identification of a wave-dominated inertial wave turbulence regime
- Reproduction of experimental observations in a simplified model
- Extension to more extreme flow parameters

## Abstract

The combination of elliptical deformation of streamlines and vorticity can lead to the destabilisation of any rotating flow via the elliptical instability. Such a mechanism has been invoked as a possible source of turbulence in planetary cores subject to tidal deformations. The saturation of the elliptical instability has been shown to generate turbulence composed of non-linearly interacting waves and strong columnar vortices with varying respective amplitudes, depending on the control parameters and geometry. In this paper, we present a suite of numerical simulations to investigate the saturation and the transition from vortex-dominated to wave-dominated regimes. This is achieved by simulating the growth and saturation of the elliptical instability in an idealised triply periodic domain, adding a frictional damping to the geostrophic component only, to mimic its interaction with boundaries. We reproduce several experimental observations within one idealised local model and complement them by reaching more extreme flow parameters. In particular, a wave-dominated regime that exhibits many signatures of inertial wave turbulence is characterised for the first time. This regime is expected in planetary interiors.