Conditions for Laminar Flow in Geophysical Vortices

Abstract

The sufficient condition for inviscid, helical instability at large wavenumbers is applied to solutions for columnar vortices arising from the vortical flow of an end-wall boundary layer. The end-wall vortex arising from the laminar boundary layer under a potential vortex will be unstable at sufficiently high Reynolds number. However, if the end-wall boundary layer is turbulent, the end-wall vortex can be stable and laminar even at very high Reynolds number; therefore, stable, laminar tornadoes and waterspouts are suggested as theoretical possibilities.