NONLINEAR BAROTROPIC INSTABILITY INCLUDING FRICTION DISSIPATION,THERMAL DRIVING AND LARGE TOPOGRAPHY^*

From a nonlinear quasi-geostrophic barotropic vorticity equation including frictional dissipation,thermal driving and large topography used by Charney in investigation of the multiple flow equilibria and blocking,using the Serrin-Joseph energy method and the variational principle,we found the nonlinear barotropic stability criteria of the zonal basic flow with the total energy,total enstrophy and their linear combination respectively,and compared the criteria with Charney's results.