Mike Olbinski’s “Vorticity 3” is a stunning view of storm chasing in the American West. I’ve learned after years in Colorado to always look up because dramatic skies are common Keep reading
Tag: convection
Jupiter in Infrared
This stunning new image of Jupiter in infrared is part of a data set combining measurements from ground- and space-based observatories. The glowing Jovian orb seen here is a composite Keep reading
The Birth of a Liquor
A water droplet immersed in a mixture of anise oil and ethanol displays some pretty complicated dynamics. Its behavior is driven, in part, by the variable miscibility of the three Keep reading
Sunlight Is Older Than You Think
Joe Hanson over at “It’s Okay to Be Smart” has a great video on the random walk photons have to make to escape the core of the sun and other Keep reading
Levitation Without Boiling
One way to levitate droplets is to place them on a surface heated much higher than the droplet’s boiling point. This creates the Leidenfrost effect, where a droplet levitates on Keep reading
Collective Catfish Convection
Gather many birds, fish, or humans together and you often get collective motion that’s remarkably fluid-like in appearance. This video shows a group of juvenile striped eel catfish, an (eventually) Keep reading
The Snowy Salt of the Dead Sea
At nearly 10 times saltier than the ocean, the Dead Sea is one of the saltiest places on Earth, and since 1979, scientists have observed it growing even saltier as snow-like salt Keep reading
Striped Clouds
Living near the Rocky Mountains, it’s not unusual to look up and find the sky striped with lines of clouds. Such wave clouds are often formed on the lee side of Keep reading
Ink Explosion
Sometimes beautiful flows come from simple combinations. Here the artists of Chemical Bouillon combine ink and hydrocarbons to create lovely explosions of color. Eschewing quick cuts between views, they allow Keep reading
Evaporative Convection
Since we spend so much of our lives around transparent fluids like air and water, we often miss seeing some of their coolest-looking flows. Here, we see a layer of Keep reading