The transition from density-driven to wave-dominated isolated flows

An isolated fluid mass travelling horizontally in a stratified layer is a phenomenon described alternatively as a detached gravity-current head or a strongly nonlinear solitary wave. A key feature of this flow is the transport of mass. Laboratory experiments examine the transition in time from a regime in which the flow is density driven, to one in which it is wave dominated. A simple means of creating this transitional regime, an isolated flow that exhibits both density and wave effects, is achieved by dropping a thermal into a linearly stratified layer. This transitional regime is called an ‘isolated propagating flow’. Parameters for which the transitional regime occurs are identified. Particle-tracking studies reveal the vertical flow structure. There is an upper zone that is wave dynamical, and a lower zone in which transport of mass occurs. The transported mass slowly leaks out, until the phenomenon resembles a weakly nonlinear solitary wave. The experiments mimic a thunderstorm microburst impacting a temperature inversion, which has aviation safety implications. In the ocean, cracks in the ice cap (polar leads) cause similar flows impacting the thermocline.