Lab experiments and numerical simulations can only take us so far; sometimes there’s no substitute for getting out into the field. That’s why a beach in San Diego turned pink Keep reading
Tag: ocean
Inhibiting Marine Lightning
Thunderstorms over the ocean have substantially less lightning than a similar storm over land. Scientists wondered whether this difference could be due to lower cloud bases over the ocean or Keep reading
Seismic Events Reveal Ocean Temperatures
Decades ago, researchers proposed sending sound waves through the ocean to measure its temperature. Although the technique worked, it ran into noise pollution issues, but now it’s back, using naturally-occurring Keep reading
Two Views of Ocean Eddies
Colorful, sediment-laden eddies swirl off the Italian coast in this satellite image. These small-scale eddies — less than 10 km in diameter — can be short-lived and are often difficult Keep reading
Droplets From Jets
On the ocean, countless crashing waves are creating bubbles. When they burst, those bubbles generate jets and droplets that spray into the sky, carrying sea salt, dust, and biological material Keep reading
The Naruto Whirlpools
Enormous whirlpools are not simply the work of overactive imaginations. There are several spots in the world, including Japan’s Naruto Strait, that regularly see these spectacular vortices. Naruto’s whirlpools are Keep reading
Pluto’s Subsurface Ocean
Since the New Horizons probe visited Pluto in 2015, scientists have suspected that Sputnik Planitia (a.k.a. Pluto’s Heart), shown above, may hide a subsurface ocean. But it’s tough to explain Keep reading
Massive Worthington Jet
The FloWave facility in Scotland is one of the coolest ocean simulators out there. Equipped with 168 individual wave makers and 28 submerged flow-drive units, it’s capable of recreating almost Keep reading
Tornadoes, Fire, and Ice
It’s time for another look at breaking fluid dynamics research with the latest FYFD/JFM video! This time around, we tackle some geophysical fluid dynamics, like listening to the sounds newborn Keep reading
Waves Below the Surface
Even a seemingly calm ocean can have a lot going on beneath the surface. Many layers of water at different temperatures and salinities make up the ocean. Both of those Keep reading