2D Turbulence & Vortices

In 1995-1996 I have been studying the structure and dispersion properties of coherent vortices that emerge in two-dimensional turbulence. These vortices are observed in many large-scale geophysical flows: examples are the polar vortex, the red spot on Jupiter and the 'Meddies' of saline water that propagate from the Straits of Gibraltar into the Ocean.
The experimental set-up consisted of a rotating tank with stratified fluid, forced with sources and sinks around a horizontal ring. The flow was visualised using white particles and a horizontal light sheet, recorded on a VCR and analysed using the DigImage software.

I have an abstract of the resulting paper available on-line, and the full text can be found in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

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Frans de Rooij, last modified 2 March 1999.