vortex-available-energy

Analyse available energetics of a dry axisymmetric atmospheric vortex as described by Tailleux and Harris (2019):

The generalised buoyancy/inertial forces and available energy of axisymmetric compressible stratified vortex motions

Vortex.py contains the Vortex class, which is used to define a dry axisymmetric atmospheric vortex in thermal wind balance.

The vortex used as an example in Tailleux and Harris (2019), which itself is taken from Smith (2005), can be instantiated using the Vortex.smith() class method.

Vortices created using the Vortex class have methods to compute typical air parcel properties. For example, to compute the entropy of the Smith vortex at a radius of 5km and a height of 1km:

vortex = Vortex.smith()
entropy = vortex.entropy(5000., 1000.)

available_energy.py contains functions for computing the various energies defined by Tailleux and Harris (2019):

• Available acoustic energy
• Vortex available energy
• Thermodynamic () and mechanical () components of ,

using a Vortex object as a reference state. Functions for computing vortex available energy for a range of perturbations are also provided, as well as functions for comparing to the eddy kinetic energy.

plot_vortex.py contains functions to plot various vortex and available energy features, including the figures featured in Tailleux and Harris (2019).

Running

python plot_vortex.py

from the src directory will generate all figures from Tailleux and Harris (2019) and save them to the results folder.

Tested using python 3.7.3 with numpy 1.16.4 and matplotlib 3.1.0.