Zonal Flow as Pattern Formation

Abstract

In this section, we examine the transition from statistically homogeneous turbulence to inhomogeneous turbulence with zonal flows. Statistical equations of motion can be derived from the quasilinear approximation to the Hasegawa-Mima equation. We review recent work that finds a bifurcation of these equations and shows that the emergence of zonal flows mathematically follows a standard type of pattern formation. We also show that the dispersion relation of modulational instability can be extracted from the statistical equations of motion in a certain limit. The statistical formulation can thus be thought to offer a more general perspective on growth of coherent structures, namely through instability of a full turbulent spectrum. Finally, we offer a physical perspective on the growth of large-scale structures.