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Effect of obliquity on climate

Two movies highlighting the different circulations obtained on Aquaplanet  with a 23.5 degree obliquity (Earth's value) and with a 90 degree obliquity
• a movie showing the synoptic scale activity in the atmosphere of an Aquaplanet and its impact on the air-sea heat flux and mixed layer depth
• a similar movie for an Aquaplanet  with an obliquity of 90 degree (compare to the present-day value of 23.45 degree in the movie above).

A Ridge World driven through its 3 stable equilibria by a linearly decreasing solar constant: the ice edge “sticks” around the equilibrium positions for decades and abruptly transition between positions.

Trajectories of debris in the Southern Indian Ocean

This illustrates the wide range of possible motions of debris in the Indian Ocean (thinking about the fate of debris of the missing MH370 flight if indeed it crashed in that area). Here, the particles are released every March (from 1992 to 2007) by pairs.

 

Because of the chaotic nature of ocean currents (due here to ocean vortices), the two particles can go in any direction, move linearly or spiral around, spread apart or converge together. This also reveals the difficulty to know the origin of a debris when it is found.

 

The particles are carried  around by observed currents (from satellite altimetry AVISO). The box with the thick dashed line corresponds approximately to the search area (West of Perth).

Experiment in the Fluids Lab
Rotating/non-rotating convection
Stommel-Arons (deep Western boundary current)
Taylor-Proudman column
Fluids dynamics and music
Intermittence 3 (tronchom.free.fr for more)
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