Energy spectrum of quasigeostrophic turbulence.
We consider the energy spectrum of a quasigeostrophic model of forced, rotating turbulent flow. We provide a rigorous a priori bound E(k)<or=Ck(-2) valid for wave numbers that are smaller than a wave number associated with the forcing injection scale. This upper bound separates this spectrum from the Kolmogorov-Kraichnan k(-5/3) energy spectrum that is expected in a two-dimensional Navier-Stokes inverse cascade. Our bound provides theoretical support for the k(-2) spectrum observed in recent experiments.
Constantin
Peter
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Department of Mathematics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.