Self-organization and critical phenomena in geophysical turbulence

P. D. MININNI

Bangalore

Workshop; Field theory and turbulence; 2023

ICTS

One of the most impressive phenomena in atmospheric flows is the organization of turbulent convective motions into large-scale structures. Turbulence theory has proposed an inverse cascade in two-dimensional flows as the mechanism behind this process, but its applicability to realistic atmospheric and oceanic flows remains heavily debated. In this talk I will discuss recent advances in our understanding of three-dimensional flows under specific geometrical constraints, the possibility of phase transitions giving rise to spontaneous self-organization even when these flows remain three-dimensional, and present direct numerical simulations with unprecedented spatial resolution that support the development of a bi-directional cascade of energy for parameters comparable to that of the Earth’s atmosphere.