Dual Euler–Poincaré/Lie–Poisson formulation of subinertial stratified thermal ocean flow with identification of Casimirs as Noether quantities

This paper investigates the geometric structure of a quasigeostrophic approximation to a recently introduced reduced-gravity thermal rotating shallow-water model that accounts for stratification. Specifically, it considers a low-frequency approximation of a model for flow above the ocean thermocline, governed by primitive equations with buoyancy variations in both horizontal and vertical directions. Like the thermal model, the stratified variant generates circulation patterns reminiscent of submesoscale instabilities visible in satellite images. An improvement is its ability to model mixed-layer restratification due to baroclinic instability. The primary contribution of this paper is to demonstrate that the model is derived from an Euler–Poincaré variational principle, culminating in a Kelvin–Noether theorem, previously established solely for the primitive-equation parent model. The model’s Lie–Poisson Hamiltonian structure, earlier obtained through direct calculation, is shown to result from a Legendre transform with the associated geometry elucidated by identifying the relevant momentum map. Another significant contribution of this paper is the identification of the Casimirs of the Lie–Poisson system, including a newly found weaker Casimir family forming the kernel of the Lie–Poisson bracket, which results in potential vorticity evolution independent of buoyancy details as it advects under the flow. These conservation laws related to particle relabeling symmetry are explicitly linked to Noether quantities from the Euler–Poincaré principle when variations are not constrained to vanish at integration endpoints. The dual Euler–Poincaré/Lie–Poisson formalism provides a unified framework for describing quasigeostrophic reduced-gravity stratified thermal flow, mirroring the approach used in the primitive-equation setting.