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The temperature forcing wants to bring warm water inwards in our experiment (warm air/water polewards in the real atmosphere/ocean) and cold water outwards (equatorwards). For low rotation rates (small f), the Rossby radius is much smaller larger than the circumference of our tank (a latitudinal circle in the atmosphere). In this case, the circulation is symmetric with respect to the pole and cold fluid flows inward on the bottom and gets deflected to the right resulting in anti-cyclonic motion. Warm fluid moves outward on the top, gets deflected to the right and results in anti- cyclonic motion. This circulation is analogous to the Hadley circulation in the low latitude atmosphere. A sketch of the deviation of the moving fluids can be seen in the following sketch:
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You can find our experimental setup description here: Experimental Setup for General Circulation - Experiment Tips(Wilken & Julian)
Hadley Regime f=0.1s^-1
We have used a rotation rate of f=0.1s^-1. Here we present a top view onto our experiment. Turn on your computer's volume as we have commented the video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olKFj6g-nPw&feature=channel&fmt=18
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