Reply To: Proliferation?

[AaronB]

jamesr wrote: Jet streams are different in nature to ocean currents and flow along plasma filaments. As far as plasma phenomena go, “zonal flows” in tokamaks are the closest analogy. In the atmosphere of earth (or other planets such as Jupiter or Saturn) they come about by the Hadley cell flow up from the equator then flowing north (or south in southern hemisphere) to the tropics where they cool and fall. This combines with a second cell & third cell from the tropics to the pole – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jetcrosssection.jpg. These north-south eddies interact with the Earth’s rotation to create flows perpendicular to the main eddy rotation. At low altitude they are the trade winds, at high altitude the jet streams.

In tokamaks the turbulent flow outwards from the core (& perpendicular to the magnetic field) creates motion in the third, poloidal, direction perpendicular to both the B-field and the pressure gradient know as zonal flows, which can help in forming barriers to the flow of heat out of the tokamak.

The main point it jet stream type flows are perpendicular to the forcing potential (temperature gradient from equator to pole in this case), not down the potential as normal flows are.

Yes, you are correct. I incorrectly lumped these flows together. There are primary movements in the direction of the gradient, as well as secondary and tertiary movements influenced by regional interactions. These additional flows must be considered in addition to the primary movements. These flows can help or hinder whatever you’re trying to do. Thanks for the more robust explanation.