Articles

Filamentation of Unstable Vortex Structures via Separatrix Crossing: A Quantitative Estimate of Onset Time

Polvani, Lorenzo M.; Flierl, G. R.; Zabusky, N. J.

The onset of filamentation for compact vortex structures in two-dimensional incompressible flows is elucidated. An estimate is presented for the filamentation time of an unstably perturbed Kirchhoff ellipse, obtained from a linear analysis of the geometry of the instantaneous corotating streamfunction.

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Title
Physics of Fluids A: Fluid Dynamics
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.857485

More About This Work

Academic Units
Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Ocean and Climate Physics
Publisher
AIP Publishing
Published Here
November 19, 2013