ON THE BAROTROPIC INSTABILITY OF LARGE SCALE VORTICES^*

By using the linearized barotropic vorticity equation in polar coordinates the stability of perturbations on a large scale circular basic flow is transformed into a generalized eigenvalue problem,yielding the relationship between the growth rate of the amplitude of perturbations and the azimuthal wave number. Then, numerical experiments whose integration time is 60 model hours are performed in terms of a quasi-geostrophic barotropic model in Cartesian coordinates using the perturbation stream function field of unstable mode superimposed on a strong and weak circular basic flows as the initial fields. The experimental results reveal that the amplitudes of the initial perturbations in the model atmosphere grow with time. The amplitude of the perturbations superimposedon the strong circular basic flow grows quicker and forms a spiral-band-like structure.