The decadally modulating eddy field in the upstream Kuroshio Extension and its related mechanisms

Both the level of the high-frequency eddy kinetic energy（HF-EKE） and the energy-containing scale in the upstream Kuroshio Extension（KE） undergo a well-defined decadal modulation, which correlates well with the decadal KE path variability. The HF-EKE level and the energy-containing scales will increase with unstable KE path and decrease with stable KE path. Also the mesoscale eddies are a little meridionally elongated in the stable state, while they are much zonally elongated in the unstable state. The local baroclinic instability and the barotropic instability associated with the decadal modulation of HF-EKE have been investigated. The results show that the baroclinic instability is stronger in the stable state than that in the unstable state, with a shorter characteristic temporal scale and a larger characteristic spatial scale. Meanwhile, the regional-averaged barotropic conversion rate is larger in the unstable state than that in the stable state. The results also demonstrate that the baroclinic instability is not the dominant mechanism influencing the decadal modulation of the mesoscale eddy field, while the barotropic instability makes a positive contribution to the decadal modulation.

Application of multi-pulse optical imaging to measure evolution of laser-produced counter-streaming flows

A counter-streaming flow system is a test-bed to investigate the astrophysical collisionless shock（CS） formation in the laboratory. Electrostatic/electromagnetic instabilities, competitively growing in the system and exciting the CS formation, are sensitive to the flows parameters. One of the most important parameters is the velocity, determining what kind of instability contributes to the shock formation. Here we successfully measure the evolution of the counter-streaming flows within one shot using a multi-pulses imaging diagnostic technique. With the technique, the average velocity of the high-density-part（ne ≥ 8–9 × 10^19cm^-3） of the flow is directly measured to be of ～ 10^6cm/s between 7 ns and 17 ns.Meanwhile, the average velocity of the low-density-part（ne ≤ 2 × 10^19cm^-3） can be estimated as ～ 10^7cm/s. The experimental results show that a collisionless shock is formed during the low-density-part of the flow interacting with each other.

Stability of Couette flow past a gel film

We study instability of a Newtonian Couette flow past a gel-like film in the limit of vanishing Reynolds number. Three models are explored including one hyperelastic（neo-Hookean） solid, and two viscoelastic（Kelvin–Voigt and Zener） solids. Instead of using the conventional Lagrangian description in the solid phase for solving the displacement field, we construct equivalent ‘‘differential＇＇ models in an Eulerian reference frame, and solve for the velocity, pressure, and stress in both fluid and solid phases simultaneously. We find the interfacial instability is driven by the first-normal stress difference in the basestate solution in both hyperelastic and viscoelastic models. For the neo-Hookean solid, when subjected to a shear flow, the interface exhibits a short-wave（finite-wavelength） instability when the film is thin（thick）. In the Kelvin–Voigt and Zener solids where viscous effects are incorporated, instability growth is enhanced at small wavenumber but suppressed at large wavenumber, leading to a dominant finitewavelength instability. In addition, adding surface tension effectively stabilizes the interface to sustain fluid shear.

A generic approach to the dynamical interpretation of ocean-atmosphere processes

This paper summarizes the recent development of a portable self-contained system to unravel the intricate multiscale dynamical processes from real oceanic flows, which are in nature highly nonlinear and intermittent in space and time. Of particular focus are the interactions among largescale, mesoscale, and submesoscale processes.We firsu introduce the concept of scale window, and an orthogonal subspace decomposition technigue called multiscale window transform (MWT). Established on MWT is a rigorous formalism of multiscale transport, perfect transfer, and multiscale conversion, which makes a new methodology, multiscale energy and vorticity analysis (MS-EVA). A direct application of the MS-EVA is the development of a novel localized instability analysis, generalizing the classical notion of hydrodynamic instability to finite amplitude processes on irregularly variable domains. The theory is consistent with the analytical solutions of Eady's model and Kuo's model, the benchmark models of baroclinic instability and barotropic instability; it is further validated with a vortex shedding control problem. We have put it to application with a variety of complicated real ocean problems, which would be otherwise very difficult, if not impossible, to tackle. Briefly shown in this paper include the dynamical studies of a highly variable open ocean front, and a complex coastal ocean circulation. In the former, it is found that underlying the frontal meandering is a convective instability followed by an absolute instability, and correspondingly a rapid spatially amplifying mode locked into a temporally growing mode; in the latter, we see a real ocean example of how upwelling can be driven by winds through nonlinear instability, and how winds may excite the ocean via an avenue which is distinctly different from the classical paradigms. This system is mathematically rigorous, physically robust, and practically straightforward.