PERIOD-DOUBLING BIFURCATIONS OF THE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION AND APERIODIC VARIATIONS OF THE FLOW PATTERNS

An eighth-order set of ordinary differential equations, which governs the dynamics of a quasi-geostrophic flow of the baroclinic atmosphere, is used to investigate bifurcational and chaotic forms of the atmospheric circulation. Numerical integrations of the set exhibit period-doubling bifurcations of the flow patterns. It would seem that the Feigenbaum relation (rn-rn-1)/(rn+1-rn)=4.6692 is satisfied approximately. Above a limit point the solutions are aperiodic and chaotic, and a strange attractor having four inter-linked chaotic fragments appears. A window of period-6 emerges also in the chaotic region.