Rapidly rotating radiatively driven convection: experimental and numerical validation of the `geostrophic turbulence' scaling predictions

TL;DR

This study combines experiments and simulations to validate the 'geostrophic turbulence' scaling laws in rapidly rotating radiatively driven convection, confirming theoretical predictions for heat transport and flow characteristics.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive experimental and numerical validation of the 'geostrophic turbulence' scaling laws in radiatively driven convection beyond heat transport measurements.

Findings

Validation of 'geostrophic turbulence' scaling laws for heat transport.

Flow speed and structure consistent with theoretical predictions.

Radiatively driven convection as a versatile platform for studying geophysical and astrophysical flows.

Abstract

We experimentally and numerically characterize rapidly rotating radiatively driven thermal convection, beyond the sole heat transport measurements reported in Bouillaut et al. (2021). Based on a suite of direct numerical simulations (DNS) and additional processing of the experimental data collected by Bouillaut et al. (2021), we report the simultaneous validation of the scaling predictions of the `geostrophic turbulence' regime -- the diffusivity-free or `ultimate' regime of rapidly rotating convection -- for the heat transport, the temperature fluctuations, the flow speed and the flow structure. Radiatively driven convection thus appears as a versatile setup for the laboratory observation of the diffusivity-free regimes of various convective flows of geophysical and/or astrophysical interest.