The dynamics of baroclinic and barotropic solitary eddies

Baroclinic vortices over a sloping bottom

“…The most unstable azimuthal mode increases with vortex scale. In the finite amplitude state, the larger vortices may break into separating baroclinic dipoles (Ikeda, 1981;Helfrich and Send, 1988) of the sort categorized by Flierl et aL. (1980), finite-area versions of the "hetons" of Hogg and Stommel (1985).…”

Submesoscale coherent vortices in the deep Brazil Basin

“…I am not aware of any observational confirmation of this additional eddy, but Walsh (1992) suggests that even an asymmetry or tilting of the eddy could produce a similar effect. Additionally, Flierl et al (1980) show that a quasi-geostrophic soliton generates a horizontally adjacent "rider" eddy, which influences propagation. This generation of a second eddy has also been observed in numerical models (Claudia Schmid, personal communication).…”

Venice and I: How a City Can Determine the Fate of a Career

“…Examples of long-lived oceanic features for which solitary wave models have been proposed are Gulf Stream rings (Flierl 1979, Flierl et al 1980 and, in general, the ubiquitous rings shed by western boundary currents, such as the Agulhas and North Brazil Currents. A final important example is atmospheric blocking consisting of a vortex pair embedded in westerly winds that persists beyond the synoptic timescale.…”