10:19 26 November 2009
This week, physicists at the Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, exhibited their best experimental images in a "gallery of fluid motion"
Image 8 of 11
Water flow on the ocean's surface is a patchwork of interconnected systems. Tweezing patterns out of the complexity could illuminate how ocean water is mixed, an important feature in climate models.
The complexity of the flows is illustrated in this analysis of satellite data on the Kuroshio current, the world's second strongest current after the Gulf Stream. Here, fast-moving water (red) forms geometrical structures reminiscent of loops traced out by chaotic systems.
(Image: Carolina Mendoza & Ana M. Mancho)