Generation of tripolar vortical structures on the beta plane

A new feature of the long-time evolution of a strong vortex with initially monotonic potential vorticity is found by direct numerical solution of the quasigeostrophic equivalent barotropic equation. Two satellites, which emerge after splitting of an annulus, appear at the vortex periphery. Rotation and oscillation of the tripolar structure may lead to increased mixing near the boundary of the vortex core. The translation of strong monopoles is found to be well described, even for times longer than the linear Rossby wave period, by a recent approximate theory for the evolution of an azimuthal perturbation with mode number l=1.