An experimental study of forced barotropic rossby waves |
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| Authors: | James R Holton |
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| Institution: | 1. Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute Florida State University , Tallahassee , Florida;2. Department of Atmospheric Sciences , University of Washington , Seattle |
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| Abstract: | Abstract Barotropic Rossby waves are studied in a homogeneous fluid contained in a rotating cylindrical annulus with a radially sloping bottom boundary. The waves are forced by a simple source-sink distribution which can be rotated differentially relative to the annulus. When the speed of the source-sink distribution is close to the phase speed for a free Rossby wave of a given mode, resonant amplification occurs. The experimental results are in qualitative agreement with the predictions of a simple linear theory, but certain systematic differences between theory and experiment were observed. |
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