The Rayleigh number can be understood as the ratio between the rate of heat transfer by convection to the rate of heat transfer by conduction; or, equivalently, the ratio between the corresponding timescales ( i . e . conduction timescale divided by convection timescale ), up to a numerical factor.
22.
Where " S T ", " T T " denote the salinity and temperature at top layer, " S B ", " T B " denote the salinity and temperature at bottom layer, Ra is the Rayleigh Number, and Pr is the Prandtl Number.
