A laboratory study of columnar baroclinic vortices in a continuously stratified fluid

By spin-up or spin-down, columnar vortices are generated in rotating continuously stratified fluids. The vortices are relatively isolated and retain their identity for O(10(2)) revolution times. For the majority of the vortices, the horizontal structure is that of the isolated Gaussian vortex, and the ratio of the vortex radius to the first internal deformation radius a(1) = NH/pif is approximately constant, where N is the buoyancy frequency of the stratification, H the fluid depth and f the Coriolis parameter. The vertical density profile shows that these vortices are composed of the barotropic, the first baroclinic and the second baroclinic modes. Linear stability analysis shows that the observed vortices approximately satisfy the stability condition. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.