Chaotic systems: tripolar vortex forming in a rotating fluid. Laboratory experiments on turbulent fluids are relevant to large-scale geophysical flows

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Chaotic systems: tripolar vortex forming in a rotating fluid. Laboratory experiments on turbulent fluids are relevant to large-scale geophysical flows in the atmosphere or oceans. Most commonly, monopolar & dipolar vortices have been observed under a variety of forcing conditions. This experiment demonstrates a third phenomenon, a tripolar vortex, which is caused to emerge from an unstable vortex in a spinning liquid. Turbulence in fluid media is one example of a chaotic system. Although such experiments may be repeated with similar results, the pattern of emerging vortices in a series is never be identical.

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Photo credit: © DR G.J. VAN HEIJST/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: chaos, chaotic, dynamics, effect, effects, fluid, fluids, formation, liquid, physical, physics, rotating, system, tripolar, tripole, turbulence, vortex, vortices