Rapidly rotating radiatively driven convection: experimental and numerical validation of the `geostrophic turbulence' scaling predictions

Abstract: We experimentally and numerically characterize rapidly rotating radiatively driven thermal convection, beyond the sole heat transport measurements reported in Bouillaut et al. (2021). Based on a suite of direct numerical simulations (DNS) and additional processing of the experimental data collected by Bouillaut et al. (2021), we report the simultaneous validation of the scaling predictions of the geostrophic turbulence' regime -- the diffusivity-free orultimate' regime of rapidly rotating convection -- for the heat transport, the temperature fluctuations, the flow speed and the flow structure. Radiatively driven convection thus appears as a versatile setup for the laboratory observation of the diffusivity-free regimes of various convective flows of geophysical and/or astrophysical interest.