Baroclinic Instability — Tank Experiment
Setup
You can generate a baroclinic circulation in the rotating tank with a setup like
Hot water
Weights and Ice
Omega
Use thermisters to measure temperatures at various points in the flow and dye or perman
genate crystals to visualize the flow.
As the rotation rate increases, you should be able to move from a Hadley regime to
waves to a more turbulent flow. See if you can find the transition points, and explain
what’s going on.