Nonlocal energy spectrum of forced-dissipated internal wave turbulence
Abstract
Internal gravity waves are an essential feature of flows stratified media, such as oceans and atmospheres. To investigate their dynamics, we perform simulations of the forced-dissipated kinetic equation describing the evolution of the energy spectrum of weakly nonlinear internal gravity waves. During the early evolution, the three well-known non-local interactions, the Elastic Scattering, the Induced-Diffusion, and the Parametric Sub-Harmonic Instability, together with the Super-Harmonic Instability play a prominent role. In contrast, local interactions are responsible for anisotropic energy cascade on longer time scales. We reveal emergence of a condensate at small horizontal wavevectors that can be interpreted as a pure wave-wave interaction-mediated layering process. We also observe the dynamical formation of an energy spectrum compatible with the Garrett-Munk prediction.