We report a transition to hard turbulence in rapidly rotating Boussinesq convection at high Rayleigh and Taylor numbers. The probability density for vertical vorticity develops exponential tails, as in nonrotating hard-turbulent convection, whereas the temperature and velocity retain Gaussian distributions. The Nusselt-number scaling with Rayleigh number for the rotating hard-turbulent state is identical to that for nonrotating laboratory experiments, viz., Nu∼${\mathrm{Ra}}^{2/7}$.

• Received 10 April 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.53.R5557