Scaling behaviour in Rayleigh-Benard convection with and without rotation

Rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection provides a simplified dynamical analogue for many planetary and stellar fluid systems. Here, we use numerical simulations of rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection to investigate the scaling behaviour of five quantities over a range of Rayleigh (10(3) less than or similar to Ra less than or similar to 10(9)), Prandtl (1 <= Pr <= 100) and Ekman (10(-6) <= E <= infinity) numbers. The five quantities of interest are the viscous and thermal boundary layer thicknesses, delta(v) and delta(T), mean temperature gradients, beta, characteristic horizontal length scales, l, and flow speeds, Pe. Three parameter regimes in which different scalings apply are quantified: non-rotating, weakly rotating and rotationally constrained. In the rotationally constrained regime, all five quantities are affected by rotation. In the weakly rotating regime, delta(T), beta and Pe, roughly conform to their non-rotating behaviour, but delta(v) and l are still strongly affected by the Coriolis force. A summary of scaling results is given in table 2.