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
Tag: ocean
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
Can Zooplankton Mix Oceans?
Krill and other tiny marine zooplankton make daily migrations to and from the ocean surface. Previously, models of ocean mixing ignored these migrations; these animals are tiny, researchers argued, so Keep reading
Mixing Fresh and Salty
Earth’s oceans are a complex and dynamic environment, but fortunately, we can simulate some of their physics on a smaller scale in the laboratory. The time series of images above Keep reading
Bursting Into Droplets
Our atmosphere is full of aerosols – extremely tiny particles and droplets of salt, dust, pollutants, and other substances. Wind’s effects alone cannot account for the sizes and quantities of Keep reading
Ocean Mixing
Movement in Earth’s oceans is driven by a complicated interplay of many factors like temperature, salinity, and Earth’s rotation. Above are results from a numerical simulation of the top 100 Keep reading
Coastal Upwelling
Cool temperatures and abundant nutrients make the waters off the western coast of North America especially biologically productive. This image is a composite of satellite data highlighting large phytoplankton blooms Keep reading