UC Irvine

In an earlier work we have shown the global (for all initial data and all time) well-posedness of strong solutions to the three-dimensional viscous primitive equations of large scale oceanic and atmospheric dynamics. In this paper we show that for certain class of initial data the corresponding smooth solutions of the inviscid (non-viscous) primitive equations, if they exist, they blow up in finite time. Specifically, we consider the three-dimensional inviscid primitive equations in a three-dimensional infinite horizontal channel, subject to periodic boundary conditions in the horizontal directions, and with no-normal flow boundary conditions on the solid, top and bottom boundaries. For certain class of initial data we reduce this system into the two-dimensional system of primitive equations in an infinite horizontal strip with the same type of boundary conditions; and then we show that for specific sub-class of initial data the corresponding smooth solutions of the reduced inviscid two-dimensional system develop singularities in finite time.