No Arabic abstract
A simplified model of natural convection, similar to the Lorenz (1963) system, is compared to computational fluid dynamics simulations in order to test data assimilation methods and better understand the dynamics of convection. The thermosyphon is represented by a long time flow simulation, which serves as a reference truth. Forecasts are then made using the Lorenz-like model and synchronized to noisy and limited observations of the truth using data assimilation. The resulting analysis is observed to infer dynamics absent from the model when using short assimilation windows. Furthermore, chaotic flow reversal occurrence and residency times in each rotational state are forecast using analysis data. Flow reversals have been successfully forecast in the related Lorenz system, as part of a perfect model experiment, but never in the presence of significant model error or unobserved variables. Finally, we provide new details concerning the fluid dynamical processes present in the thermosyphon during these flow reversals.
We analyse the nonlinear dynamics of the large scale flow in Rayleigh-Benard convection in a two-dimensional, rectangular geometry of aspect ratio $Gamma$. We impose periodic and free-slip boundary conditions in the streamwise and spanwise directions, respectively. As Rayleigh number Ra increases, a large scale zonal flow dominates the dynamics of a moderate Prandtl number fluid. At high Ra, in the turbulent regime, transitions are seen in the probability density function (PDF) of the largest scale mode. For $Gamma = 2$, the PDF first transitions from a Gaussian to a trimodal behaviour, signifying the emergence of reversals of the zonal flow where the flow fluctuates between three distinct turbulent states: two states in which the zonal flow travels in opposite directions and one state with no zonal mean flow. Further increase in Ra leads to a transition from a trimodal to a unimodal PDF which demonstrates the disappearance of the zonal flow reversals. On the other hand, for $Gamma = 1$ the zonal flow reversals are characterised by a bimodal PDF of the largest scale mode, where the flow fluctuates only between two distinct turbulent states with zonal flow travelling in opposite directions.
Complex interactions between cellular systems and their surrounding extracellular matrices are emerging as important mechanical regulators of cell functions such as proliferation, motility, and cell death, and such cellular systems are often characterized by pulsating acto-myosin activities. Here, using an active gel model, we numerically explore the spontaneous flow generation by activity pulses in the presence of a viscoelastic medium. The results show that cross-talk between the activity-induced deformations of the viscoelastic surroundings with the time-dependent response of the active medium to these deformations can lead to the reversal of spontaneously generated active flows. We explain the mechanism behind this phenomenon based on the interaction between the active flow and the viscoelastic medium. We show the importance of relaxation timescales of both the polymers and the active particles and provide a phase-space over which such spontaneous flow reversals can be observed. Our results suggest new experiments investigating the role of controlled pulses of activity in living systems ensnared in complex mircoenvironments.
A Martian semiannual oscillation (SAO), similar to that in the Earths tropical stratosphere, is evident in the Mars Analysis Correction Data Assimilation reanalysis dataset (MACDA) version 1.0, not only in the tropics, but also extending to higher latitudes. Unlike on Earth, the Martian SAO is found not always to reverse its zonal wind direction, but only manifests itself as a deceleration of the dominant wind at certain pressure levels and latitudes. Singular System Analysis (SSA) is further applied on the zonal-mean zonal wind in different latitude bands to reveal the characteristics of SAO phenomena at different latitudes. The second pair of principal components (PCs) is usually dominated by a SAO signal, though the SAO signal can be strong enough to manifest itself also in the first pair of PCs. An analysis of terms in the Transformed Eulerian Mean equation (TEM) is applied in the tropics to further elucidate the forcing processes driving the tendency of the zonal-mean zonal wind. The zonal-mean meridional advection is found to correlate strongly with the observed oscillations of zonal-mean zonal wind, and supplies the majority of the westward (retrograde) forcing in the SAO cycle. The forcing due to various non-zonal waves supplies forcing to the zonal-mean zonal wind that is nearly the opposite of the forcing due to meridional advection above ~3 Pa altitude, but it also partly supports the SAO between 40 Pa and 3 Pa. Some distinctive features occurring during the period of the Mars year (MY) 25 global-scale dust storm (GDS) are also notable in our diagnostic results with substantially stronger values of eastward and westward momentum in the second half of MY 25 and stronger forcing due to vertical advection, transient waves and thermal tides.
We show how the 3DVAR data assimilation methodology can be used in the astrophysical context of a two-dimensional convection flow. We study the way this variational approach finds best estimates of the current state of the flow from a weighted average of model states and observations. We use numerical simulations to generate synthetic observations of a vertical two-dimensional slice of the outer part of the solar convection zone for varying noise levels and implement 3DVAR when the covariance matrices are scalar. Our simulation results demonstrate the capability of 3DVAR to produce error estimates of system states between up to tree orders of magnitude below the original noise level present in the observations. This work exemplifies the importance of applying data assimilation techniques in simulations of the stratified convection.
Chaos is ubiquitous in physical systems. The associated sensitivity to initial conditions is a significant obstacle in forecasting the weather and other geophysical fluid flows. Data assimilation is the process whereby the uncertainty in initial conditions is reduced by the astute combination of model predictions and real-time data. This chapter reviews recent findings from investigations on the impact of chaos on data assimilation methods: for the Kalman filter and smoother in linear systems, analytic results are derived; for their ensemble-bas