Fluid transport by dipolar vortices

The transport properties of dipolar vortices propagating on an f-plane are studied experimentally by examining the distortion of a series of material surfaces. The observations are compared with a model based on characterising the flow around the dipole as irrotational flow past a rigid cylinder of volume V. Measurements made of the volume of fluid permanently displaced forward by the vortices, agree to within 20% of that predicted by the proposition of Darwin [Darwin, C., 1953. A note on hydrodynamics. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Sec., 49, 342-354], namely that the vortex will displace a volume CMV forward, where C-M = 1 for a Lamb's dipole. The results are applied to examine fluid transport by dipolar vortices propagating on the beta-plane, where the ambient potential vorticity field causes easterly propagating dipolar vortices to meander sinusoidally between the North and South. We demonstrate that as the vortex moves between the North and South, it exchanges a volume CMV sin alpha by the drift effect (where alpha is the angle between the velocity of the dipole and the material surface), which is generally larger than that attributed to other mechanisms such as lobe shedding. The results are applied to give new insight to the effect of vortices in enhancing diffusion, and the secondary flow generated by the transport of ambient potential vorticity. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.