Submitting Campus
Daytona Beach
Department
Physical Sciences
Document Type
Article
Publication/Presentation Date
4-3-2023
Abstract/Description
Fritts, Wang, Lund, and Thorpe (2022, https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.1085) and Fritts, Wang, Thorpe, and Lund (2022, https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.1086) described a 3-dimensional direct numerical simulation of interacting Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) billows and resulting tube and knot (T&K) dynamics that arise at a stratified shear layer defined by an idealized, large-amplitude inertia-gravity wave. Using similar initial conditions, we performed a high-resolution compressible simulation to explore the emission of GWs by these dynamics. The simulation confirms that such shear can induce strong KHI with large horizontal scales and billow depths that readily emit GWs having high frequencies, small horizontal wavelengths, and large vertical group velocities. The density-weighted amplitudes of GWs reveal “fishbone” structures in vertical cross sections above and below the KHI source. Our results reveal that KHI, and their associated T&K dynamics, may be an important additional source of high-frequency, small-scale GWs at higher altitudes.
Publication Title
Geophysical Research Letters
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL102674
Publisher
AGU Advancing Earth and Space Sciences
Grant or Award Name
Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant FA9550-18-1-0009 and NSF Grants AGS-1759471, AGS-2032678, AGS-2131350 and AGS-2128443
Scholarly Commons Citation
Dong, W., Fritts, D. C., Liu, A. Z., Lund, T. S., & Liu, H.-L. (2023). Gravity waves emitted from Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. Geophysical Research Letters, 50, e2022GL102674. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL102674
