:numref:`lab-simulation` shows MITgcm being used to simulate a laboratory experiment (:numref:`lab_photo`) inquiring into the dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). An initially homogeneous tank of water (1 m in diameter) is driven from its free surface by a rotating heated disk. The combined action of mechanical and thermal forcing creates a lens of fluid which becomes baroclinically unstable. The stratification and depth of penetration of the lens is arrested by its instability in a process analogous to that which sets the stratification of the ACC.
A 1 m diameter laboratory experiment simulating the dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
A numerical simulation of the laboratory experiment using MITgcm.
