Baroclinic instability induced mesoscale and submesoscale processes in the river plumes: A laboratory investigation on a rotating tank

This dataset studied the baroclinic instability (BI) induced mesoscale and submesoscale processes by conducting laboratory rotating flume experiments. We acquired the high-resolution velocity data by Parrticle Image Velocity (PIV). The mesoscale and submesoscale vortices were identified and tracked, and the variations of the instabilities and kinetic energy of the plume system under different inflow conditions and slopes were summarized. Number '1' to '33' mean cases number; 'gs', 'ss', and 'ns' stand for 'gentle slope', 'steep slope', and 'no slope'; 'T20' to 'T60' correspond to the rotation period from 20 to 60 s; 'g4' to 'g10' correspond to the reduced gravity between the buoyant plume and environmental fluid from 4 to 10 cm/s^2. 'vor_char' means the vortices characteristics including the time series of the vortex center and vortex contour.