Oscillatory solutions at the continuum limit of Lorenz 96 systems

Abstract

In this paper, we study the generation and propagation of oscillatory solutions observed in the widely used Lorenz 96 (L96) systems. First, period-two oscillations between adjacent grid points are found in the leading-order expansions of the discrete L96 system. The evolution of the envelope of period-two oscillations is described by a set of modulation equations with strictly hyperbolic structure. The modulation equations are found to be also subject to an additional reaction term dependent on the grid size, and the period-two oscillations will break down into fully chaotic dynamics when the oscillation amplitude grows large. Then, similar oscillation solutions are analyzed in the two-layer L96 model including multiscale coupling. Modulation equations for period-three oscillations are derived based on a weakly nonlinear analysis in the transition between oscillatory and nonoscillatory regions. Detailed numerical experiments are shown to confirm the analytical results.