Recent developments in understanding two-dimensional turbulence and the Nastrom-Gage spectrum

Two-dimensional turbulence appears to be a more formidable problem than three-dimensional turbulence despite the numerical advantage of working with one less dimension. In the present paper we review recent numerical investigations of the phenomenology of two-dimensional turbulence as well as recent theoretical breakthroughs by various leading researchers. We also review efforts to reconcile the observed energy spectrum of the atmosphere (the Nastrom-Gage spectrum) with the predictions of two-dimensional turbulence and quasigeostrophic turbulence.