A Note on Owens' Mesoscale Eddy Simulation

Abstract

By means of the statistical theory of turbulence, we analyze the proposal advanced recently by Owens (1979) that the small-scale Eulerian acceleration is accurately predicted by a Taylor frozen field hypothesis. We show that Owens' rms acceleration spectrum is expected according to the direct interaction approximation, and we further relate Owens' efficiency factor to the degree of ?stafieneas? of the large-scale Eulerian field. We comment briefly on the usefulness of such Eulerian information in diagnosing the, dynamics of quasi-geostrophic flow.