dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaPhysical and Mathematical Properties of a Quasi-Geostrophic Model of Intermediate Complexity of the Mid-Latitudes Atmospheric Circulation
| Authors | Valerio Lucarini, Antonio Speranza, Renato VItolo |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0511208 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0511208 |
Abstract
A quasi-geostrophic intermediate complexity model is considered, providing a schematic representation of the baroclinic conversion processes which characterize the physics of the mid-latitudes atmospheric circulation. The model is relaxed towards a given latitudinal temperature profile, which acts as baroclinic forcing, controlled by a parameter TE determining the forced equator-to-pole temperature gradient. As TE increases, a transition takes place from a stationary regime to a periodic regime, and eventually to an earth-like chaotic regime where evolution takes place on a strange attractor. The dependence of the attractor dimension, metric entropy, and bounding box volume in phase space is studied by varying both TE and model resolution. The statistical properties of observables having physical relevance, namely the total energy of the system and the latitudinally averaged zonal wind, are also examined. It is emphasized that while the attractor's properties are quite sensitive to model resolution, the global physical observables depend less critically on it. For more detailed physical observables, such as the latitudinal profiles of the zonal wind, model resolution again may be critical: the effectiveness of the zonal wind convergence, acting as barotropic stabilization of the baroclinic waves, heavily relies on the details of the latitudinal structure of the fields. The necessity and complementarity of both the dynamical systems and physical approach is underlined.
{
"annotation_id": "7201ac42-f62a-4543-900b-b7531bb3d75a",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:03.792000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:03.792000Z",
"file_hash": "6d185a8944dcb35a748f94857bc403123800e0e05022eb278f4aff827bf96a02",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "A quasi-geostrophic intermediate complexity model is considered, providing a\nschematic representation of the baroclinic conversion processes which\ncharacterize the physics of the mid-latitudes atmospheric circulation. The\nmodel is relaxed towards a given latitudinal temperature profile, which acts as\nbaroclinic forcing, controlled by a parameter TE determining the forced\nequator-to-pole temperature gradient. As TE increases, a transition takes place\nfrom a stationary regime to a periodic regime, and eventually to an earth-like\nchaotic regime where evolution takes place on a strange attractor. The\ndependence of the attractor dimension, metric entropy, and bounding box volume\nin phase space is studied by varying both TE and model resolution. The\nstatistical properties of observables having physical relevance, namely the\ntotal energy of the system and the latitudinally averaged zonal wind, are also\nexamined. It is emphasized that while the attractor\u0027s properties are quite\nsensitive to model resolution, the global physical observables depend less\ncritically on it. For more detailed physical observables, such as the\nlatitudinal profiles of the zonal wind, model resolution again may be critical:\nthe effectiveness of the zonal wind convergence, acting as barotropic\nstabilization of the baroclinic waves, heavily relies on the details of the\nlatitudinal structure of the fields. The necessity and complementarity of both\nthe dynamical systems and physical approach is underlined.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0511208",
"authors": [
"Valerio Lucarini",
"Antonio Speranza",
"Renato VItolo"
],
"categories": [
"physics.ao-ph",
"nlin.CD",
"physics.comp-ph",
"physics.flu-dyn",
"physics.geo-ph"
],
"title": "Physical and Mathematical Properties of a Quasi-Geostrophic Model of Intermediate Complexity of the Mid-Latitudes Atmospheric Circulation",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0511208"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "1055beff-1efa-4bc0-9872-090a10362b6e",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}