The Formation of Large Scale Vortices in Rotating Convection and Their Resulting Dynamo Action

Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Leeds

An interesting feature revealed recently in a number of numerical simulations of rotating plane layer convection is the spontaneous formation of large-scale coherent vortices. Here I first examine this phenomenon for the conceptully simple case of rotating Boussinesq convection. I will then go on to consider the nature of magnetohydrodynamic dynamos driven by convection containing such large-scale vortices, and its possible relevance to planetary dynamos.