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Co-authors: Jewel Abbate, Hao Cao, Jonathan Aurnou
Abstract: Asymptotic analysis of rotating convective turbulence, as exists in planets and stars, yields two sets of scaling predictions for the limits of slowly rotating and rapidly rotating systems. These all hinge on the value of the convective Rossby number, Ro_c (e.g. Julien et al. 2012; Aurnou et al. 2020).
Here, we test these asymptotic scalings using a broad compilation of laboratory-numerical rotating convection experiments in planar, cylindrical, and spherical systems. We find good agreement between the different rapidly (Ro_c≪1) and slowly (Ro_c≫1) rotating trends for convective heat transfer, velocities, length scales, and dynamic Rossby numbers in Boussinesq fluids. Further, we show that the predicted trends also hold in anelastic systems, albeit with an additional dependence on the density stratification. Our tests demonstrate that, given reasonable estimates of Ro_c in a geo- or astrophysical fluid system, accurate first-order predictions of the convective dynamics can be made.