Horizontal Convection

Differential heating along one horizontal boundary of a fluid-filled volume establishes an overturning circulation (horizontal convection) in the volume. The governing dynamics in this type of convection are fundamentally different from those in other more commonly studied forms of convection in which the thermal forcing is applied at more than one level. The study of horizontal convection has been motivated largely by the need to understand the role of surface buoyancy forcing of the global oceans, and with this in mind we review a number of extensions to idealized convective flow in a simple box.