Vortex Stability, Structure, and Genesis. The stability and genesis of baroclinic Rossby vortices, the vortices associated with long solitary Rossby waves in a stratified fluid, are studied numerically using a primitive equation model with Jovian and oceanic parameters and hypothetical structures. Vortex stability, that is, coherence and persistence, depends primarily upon latitude location and vertical structure and is used to deduce possible stratifications for Jupiter's atmosphere. Soliton interactions occur between equatorial vortices of similar horizontal and vertical form. The migration of these large, shallow vortices can be reduced , but not stopped, in low latitudes by an easterly jet with the same vertical structure.
Anticyclones are stabler when they are thinner relative to the abyss.
Such flows may also be usefully represented by a vertical structure that is linear in z for the velocity and static stability in the thin upper layer and vanishes in the abyss. This holds true for the confined linear-z representation also. Ocean vortices are less persistent because the thermocline is relatively thick. Such nonlinear waves develop into vortices that exhibit a variety of configurations and evolutionary paths. In most cases multiple mergers tend toward an end state with a single large vortex.