DOI: 10.5061/dryad.wm37pvmqz
title: Planetary core-style rotating convective flows in paraboloidal laboratory experiments

description: Turbulent convection in a planet’s outer core is simulated here using a
 thermally-driven free surface paraboloidal laboratory annulus. We show
 that the rapidly rotating convection dynamics in free-surface paraboloidal
 annuli are similar to those in planetary spherical shell geometries. Three
 experimental cases are carried out, respectively, at 35 revolutions per
 minute (rpm), 50 rpm and 60 rpm.Thermal Rossby waves are detected in full
 disk thermographic images of the fluid’s free surface. Ultrasonic flow
 velocity measurements reveal the presence of multiple azimuthal (zonal)
 jets, with successively more jets forming in higher rotation rate cases.
 The jets’ cylindrical radial extent is well approximated by the Rhines
 scale. Over time, the zonal jets migrate to larger radial position with
 migration rates in good agreement with prior theoretical estimates. Our
 results suggest that planetary core rotating convection will be comprised
 of flow structures found in other turbulent geophysical fluid dynamical
 systems: convective turbulence dominates the small-scale flow field, and
 also act to flux energy into larger-scale, slowly evolving zonal flow
 structures. How the ambient magnetic fields in planetary core settings
 affect such turbulent flows remains an open question.
description: # Data for the experiment "Planetary Core-Style Rotating Convective
 Flows in Paraboloidal Laboratory Experiments" Raw data is provided
 for the three cases mentioned in the paper: 35, 50, and 60 RPM.
 Additionally, calibration data is provided to remove offsets in the IR
 readings with respect to the thermistors. In these cases, the thermistors
 reading in Celsius to match to the IR readings was 24.6367, 26.2664, and
 24.3968. The "ascii" and "irb" folders contain the
 same information in different file formats. The ascii files are matrices
 of the temperature in Celsius per pixel. The .irb files are the files
 taken from the InfraTec software and can be re-opened if using the same
 instrument. The 50 and 60 RPM cases have folders under ascii titled
 "Full" which just contains the same data as the time-stamped
 folders but in one folder for ease of importing. The "dop"
 folder contains binary data files with the data taken from the UDV. MATLAB
 and python routines for reading these files can be found through the
 Signal Processing website:
 The thermistor
 readings from the bottom of the tank can be found in the
 "thermistor" folder in a variety of formats. I recommend looking
 at the "_working" .mat files as some of the thermistors broke
 throughout testing, so these files contain data from all the functioning
 thermistors at the time of data collection. Azimuthal thermistors are
 thermistors that had intended to be placed along the outer wall of the
 tank. Lateral thermistors are those that crossed the annulus of the tank
 radially. The '_all' .mat file thermistors contains all the
 available thermistors (both working and broken). The PNG files show the
 lateral thermistors over the time of the experimental run (broken into 4
 ten-minute segments). ***NOTE: Files were compressed on a Windows
 platform. As a result, Mac/Linux users may need to install a third-party
 decompression software to properly unzip the files.***