Planetary convection: heat transfer by rotating flows

Eric King, UC Berkeley
September 19th, 2012 at 4PM–5PM in 939 Evans Hall [Map]

Fluids throughout the solar system are driven to turbulence by thermal and gravitational energy. These convective flows are subject to the rapid rotation of their host bodies through the Coriolis force, which can dramatically alter the nature of turbulent convection. Using simplified models of turbulent, rotating convection, we try to answer an age old question: how much heat can these flows transport? Following the seminal work by Malkus (1954), we leverage the important role of the thermal boundary layers to infer an exact scaling law for heat transport by rapidly rotating convection. The scaling law is then tested against results from experiments and simulations.