Fluid Mechanics
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Abstract
Orographic wakes have important effects in the atmosphere and oceans as a source of waves and vortices. The induced drag forces influence the atmospheric winds and oceanic currents, Some of the largest and most persistent circulation errors in global numerical weather prediction and climate models are still attributable to the inadequate representation of this topographic drag. In oceanic canyons, wake effects lead to vertical mixing and upwelling. Orographic effects are also expected to play an important role at the outer boundary of planetary liquid cores, with influence on the magnetic field generati ABSTRACT Dr. Sommeria, a physicist by training, is a research director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), where he has spent his entire career. He obtained a PhD from the University of Grenoble in 1985 on magneto-hydrodynamic turbulence and its links with two-dimensional turbulence. He then turned his attention to the process of self-organization of turbulence. He explained the formation of large atmospheric vortices such as the Great Red Spot of Jupiter by the statistical mechanics of vorticity, and reproduced this phenomenon in the laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin. He proposed that similar vortices initiate the formation of planets in the proto-planetary nebula. Since 2000, he has been in charge of the large "Coriolis" rotating platform in Grenoble, which reproduces the dynamics of atmospheric or oceanic flows. This instrument belongs to the LEGI (Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels). Since 2019, Joël Sommeria is the director of this laboratory. He is also the editorial head of two online publications, Encyclopedia of the Environment and Encyclopedia of Energy. magnetic field generation. a