Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T14:39:56.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A note on potential energy density in a stratified compressible fluid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2006

David G. Andrews
David G. Andrews
Affiliation:
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Program, Princeton University, New Jersey 08540 Present address: Department of Atmospheric Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An exact, local, positive definite expression is obtained for the potential energy density in a wide class of stratified compressible fluids. This expression is an extension of that derived for incompressible stratified fluids in the preceding paper by Holliday & McIntyre (1981), and also represents a finite-amplitude analogue of the disturbance potential energy density that is familiar in small-amplitude theory. Its volume integral reduces to Lorenz’ (1955) available potential energy under suitable choice of a hydrostatic reference state, provided that the fluid is contained within a fixed volume enclosed by rigid impermeable boundaries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 107 , June 1981 , pp. 227 - 236
Copyright
© 1981 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Holliday, D. & McIntyre, M. E. 1981 On potential energy density in an incompressible, stratified fluid. J. Fluid Mech. 107, 221–225.Google Scholar
Lighthill, J. 1978 Waves in Fluids. Cambridge University Press.
Lorenz, E. N. 1955 Available potential energy and the maintenance of the general circulation. Tellus 7, 157–167.Google Scholar
Lorenz, E. N. 1967 The Nature and Theory of the General Circulation of the Atmosphere. World Meteorological Organisation.
Pearce, R. P. 1978 On the concept of available potential energy. Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 104, 737–755.Google Scholar
Simmons, A. J. & Hoskins, B. J. 1978 The life cycles of some nonlinear baroclinic waves. J. Atmos. Sci. 35, 414–432.Google Scholar