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Finger puzzles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2012

R. W. Schmitt
R. W. Schmitt*
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: rschmitt@whoi.edu
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Abstract

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Salt fingers are a form of double-diffusive convection that can occur in a wide variety of fluid systems, ranging from stellar interiors and oceans to magma chambers. Their amplitude has long been difficult to quantify, and a variety of mechanisms have been proposed. Radko & Smith (J. Fluid Mech., this issue, vol. 692, 2012, pp. 5–27) have developed a new theory that balances the basic growth rate with that of secondary instabilities that act on the finite amplitude fingers. Their approach promises a way forward for computationally challenging systems with vastly different scales of decay for momentum, heat and dissolved substances.

JFM classification

Convection: Double diffusive convectionInstability: InstabilityGeophysical and Geological Flows: Ocean processes

Information

Type
Focus on Fluids
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 692 , 10 February 2012, pp. 1 - 4
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

References

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