Negative viscosity for Rossby wave and drift wave turbulence

The possible occurrence of a “negative viscosity effect” is studied for Rossby wave and drift wave turbulence. It is assumed that (i) the space and time scales of the wave field are much smaller than the scales of the mean field, and (ii) the small-scale field is sufficiently weak, stationary, and maintained by an external source. Such a formulation is fruitful for studying the effects (characterized by the effective viscosity) of smaller-scale motions upon larger-scale ones. The criteria of large-scale instability due to the negative effective viscosity are derived for the coherent wave motions as well as for small-scale isotropic wave turbulence. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 113, 646–663 (February 1998) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Reproduced here with stylistic changes by the Translation Editor.