We examine the consequences of self-similarity of the energy spectrum of two-dimensional decaying turbulence, and conclude that traditional closures (such as EDQNM and TFM) are consistent with this principle only if the regions of space contributing significantly to energy and enstrophy transfer comprise an ever diminishing region of space as time proceeds from the initial time of Gaussian chaos. Results of modifying the TFM according to this assumption are compared to the recent high resolution DNS of Chasnov.
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