Inertial Modes

research

Inertial modes are global oscillations of a rotating fluid, restored by the Coriolis force. I’ve studied where they come from and how they show up across very different systems: in a laboratory spherical Couette experiment, where my simulations reproduced modes seen at BTU Cottbus; in the Sun, where eigenmodes computed with the linear code Kore (the same code used to map the onset of convection itself) match recent observations of solar Rossby and HFR vorticity waves; and, more fundamentally, in 3D convection simulations, which show that these modes emerge naturally from rotationally constrained turbulence once the convective Rossby number drops below about one-half - without any external forcing.

Related publications:

Waves and Modes