term suppresses forcing only at the lower-layer is equivalent to ignoring the unknown effect of the entanglement of the Ekman term with the interlayer interaction, and that is the underlying problem.

It should be noted that, in the context of the two-layer model, unless the dissipation terms at small scales can dissipate the energy and potential enstrophy at the same rate with which they are injected to the downscale range, the downscale energy and potential enstrophy cascades will simply fail to develop. It is not yet obvious, in terms of theory, whether the two-layer quasi-geostrophic model can dissipate this much energy, a problem previously discussed by @article:Tung:2007. On the other hand, in the real atmosphere, we note that at larger wavenumbers, the dynamics transitions from quasi-geostrophic to stratified three-dimensional turbulence. According to @article:Lindborg:2007, the transition to stratified turbulence occurs at a scale of about $100$km. Since stratified turbulence, like three-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence, does have an anomalous energy dissipation sink, it follows that any amount of energy injected at large scales can and will be dissipated. Furthermore, since potential enstrophy continues to be conserved under stratified dynamics, the two cascades can continue to coexist for scales less than $100$km. On the 