부산대학교 도서관

The main objective of the AtmoFlow experiment is the investigation of convective flows in thespherical gap geometry. Gaining fundamental knowledge on the origin and behavior of flowphenomena such as global cells and planetary waves is interesting not only from ameteorological perspective. Understanding the interaction between atmosphericcirculation and a planet’s climate, be it Earth, Mars, Jupiter, or a distant exoplanet,contributes to various fields of research such as astrophysics, geophysics, fluidphysics, and climatology. The main feature of AtmoFlow is its spherical geometry andaims to observe flows in a thin gap that are subjected to a central force field. Sucha condition, obviously impossible to reach on ground, is achieved by simulatingbuoyancy driven convection through a central dielectrophoretic field in micro-gravityconditions e.g. on the ISS. Without losing its overall view on the complex physics,circulation in planetary atmospheres can be reduced to a simple model of the in- andoutgoing energy (e.g. radiation) and rotational effects. Both input parameters aredetermined by the boundaries of the system. This strongly simplified assumptionmakes it possible to break some generic cases down to test models which can beinvestigated by laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. Varying differentialrotation rates and temperature boundary conditions represent different types ofplanets. This is a very basic approach, but various open questions regarding localpattern formation or global planetary cells can be investigated with that setup. Aconcept has been defined for developing a payload that could be installed and utilizedon-board the International Space Station. This concept is based on the micro-gravityexperiment GeoFlow, which has been conducted successfully between 2008 and 2016 onthe ISS. We present the scientific goals, the experimental setup, the concept forimplementation of the AtmoFlow experiment on the ISS and first numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]