NUMERICAL-SIMULATION OF GEOPHYSICAL TURBULENCE

Most oceanic turbulence and eddies originate from the development of i nstabilities resulting from the combined effects of density gradients and fast rotation. We present here numerical Large-Eddy Simulations (L ES) of high-Reynolds number turbulent flows of oceanic interest. We fi rst investigate the effects of solid-body rotation on free-shear flows , wall bounded flows, and homogeneous turbulence, and show the drastic modification of the flow topology. We then show how LES techniques ca n be applied to the computation of oceanic mesoscale eddies resulting from various instability mechanisms such as baroclinic instability and convective instability.