Forced two layer beta-plane quasigeostrophic flow. Part I: Long-time existence and uniqueness of weak solutions

We consider a model of quasigeostrophic turbulence that has proven useful in theoretical studies of large scale heat transport and coherent structure formation in planetary atmospheres and oceans. The model consists of a coupled pair of hyperbolic PDEs with a forcing which represents domain-scale thermal energy source. Although the use to which the model is typically put involves gathering information from very long numerical integrations, little of a rigorous nature is known about long-time properties of solutions to the equations. In this first paper we define a notion of weak solution, and show using Galerkin methods the long-time existence and uniqueness of such solutions.