Large scale structures in rotationally constrained convection

Rotationally constrained convection plays a role in open-ocean deep convection, planetary interiors, and the atmospheres of gas giant planets. Non-hydrostatic quasi-geostrophic dynamics asymptotically describes the regime of rotationally constrained convection. These reduced equations allow numerical simulations to explore a new turbulent convective regime at high Rayleigh number and low Rossby number. The dynamics shows the formation of large scale barotropic structures that are driven by two mechanisms: an inverse cascade in the barotropic component of the flow, and a transfer of energy from the baroclinic convective motions to the large scale barotropic structure.