Eddy amplitudes and fluxes in a homogeneous model of fully developed baroclinic instability

Abstract

A horizontally homogeneous two-layer quasigeostrophic model with imposed environmental vertical shear is used to study eddy energies and fluxes in the regime in which an inverse barotropic energy cascade excites eddies of much larger scale than the deformation radius. It is shown that the eddy potential vorticity flux, "thickness' flux, and the extraction of energy from the background flow are dominated by the largest eddies excited by the cascade and not be deformation-scale eddies. -from Authors