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Helicity in dynamic atmospheric processes

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Abstract

An overview on the helicity of the velocity field and the role played by this concept in modern research in the field of geophysical fluid dynamics and dynamic meteorology is given. Different (both previously known in the literature and first presented) formulations of the equation of helicity balance in atmospheric motions (including those with allowance for effects of air compressibility and Earth’s rotation) are brought together. Equations and relationships are given which are valid in different approximations accepted in dynamic meteorology: Boussinesq approximation, quasi-static approximation, and quasi-geostrophic approximation. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of helicity budget in large-scale quasi-geostrophic systems of motion; a formula for the helicity flux across the upper boundary of the nonlinear Ekman boundary layer is given, and this flux is shown to be exactly compensated for by the helicity destruction inside the Ekman boundary layer.

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  1. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119017, Russia

    M. V. Kurgansky

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Original Russian Text © M.V. Kurgansky, 2017, published in Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Fizika Atmosfery i Okeana, 2017, Vol. 53, No. 2, pp. 147–163.

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Kurgansky, M.V. Helicity in dynamic atmospheric processes. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 53, 127–141 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433817020074

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