Spectra, spatial scales, and predictability in a quasigeostropic model

Consistent with this, the model's predictability behavior exhibits key features expected for flow with a shallower than -3 slope. At the highest resolution, upper-surface perturbation spectra peak below the energy-containing scales, and the error growth rate decreases as small scales saturate. In addition, as model resolution is increased and smaller scales are resolved, the peak of the upper-surface perturbation spectra shifts to smaller scales and the error growth rate increases.

The implications for potential predictive improvements are not as severe, however, as in the standard picture of flows exhibiting a finite predictability limit. At the highest resolution, the model also exhibits periods of much faster-than-average perturbation growth that are associated with faster growth at smaller scales, suggesting predictability behavior that varies with time.