  We report of a series of laboratory experiments and numerical simulations of
freely-decaying rotating turbulent flows confined in domains with variable
height. We show that the vertical confinement has important effects on the
formation of large-scale columnar vortices, the hallmark of rotating
turbulence, and in particular delays the development of the cyclone-anticyclone
asymmetry. We compare the experimental and numerical results face-to-face,
showing the robustness of the results.
