Modulated point-vortex pairs on a rotating sphere: dynamics and chaotic advection

The dynamics of modulated point-vortex pairs is investigated on a rotating sphere, where modulation is chosen to reflect the conservation of angular momentum (potential vorticity). For sufficiently close vortices (dipoles) the trajectories of their center-of-mass are shown to correspond to those of a point particle moving freely on a rotating sphere. For finite size vortex pairs, a qualitative similarity to the geodesic dynamics is found. The advection dynamics generated by vortex pairs on a rotating sphere is found to be chaotic. In the short time dynamics we point out a transition from closed to open chaotic advection, which implies that the transport properties of the flow might drastically be altered by changing the initial conditions of the pair on the sphere. Due to spherical topology, for long times, even the open advection patterns are found to gradually cross over to that corresponding to a homogeneous closed mixing. This pattern extends along a zonal band, whereas short term closed mixing remains always bounded to the moving pair.