| Issue |
EPL
Volume 96, Number 2, October 2011
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 25001 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | Physics of Gases, Plasmas and Electric Discharges | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/96/25001 | |
| Published online | 29 September 2011 | |
Feedback of zonal flows on wave turbulence driven by small-scale instability in the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima model
1
Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick - Coventry CV4 7AL, UK, EU
2
Centre for Complexity Science, University of Warwick - Coventry CV4 7AL, UK, EU
Received:
18
July
2011
Accepted:
26
August
2011
We demonstrate theoretically and numerically the zonal-flow/drift-wave feedback mechanism in an idealised 2-dimensional model of plasma turbulence driven by a small-scale instability. Zonal flows are generated by a secondary modulational instability of the modes which are directly driven by the primary instability. The zonal flows then suppress the small scales thereby arresting the energy injection into the system, a process which can be described using nonlocal (in scale) wave turbulence theory. Finally, the arrest of the energy input results in saturation of the zonal flows at a level which can be estimated from the theory and the system reaches stationarity without large-scale dissipation.
PACS: 52.35.Ra – Plasma turbulence / 52.35.Kt – Drift waves / 47.27.-i – Turbulent flows
© EPLA, 2011
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