Falling From the Sky

Artist Sho Shibuya paints daily meditations on a copy of The New York Times. These particular examples are part of a recent collection, Falling From the Sky, that features realistic trompe l’oeil droplets that celebrate rain and rainy days. Having spent many an hour contemplating water droplets on my window, I love these. (Image credits: S. Shibuya; via Colossal)

#ScribesAndMakers 12 Sep 'Scientific knowledge'

Based on my deep connection with education, it’s my own knowledge which lights the spark of many sub plots, and then my reference material helps keep me on track.

This is definitely a case of #FictionRootedInFact

Fluid dynamics

Navier-Stokes equations

Non-linear partial differential equations

see Alt Text for more

Aboard a Hurricane Hunter

For decades, NOAA has relied on two WP-3D Orion aircraft–nicknamed Kermit and Miss Piggy–to carry crews into the heart of hurricanes, collecting data all the while. Every ride aboard a Hurricane Hunter is a bumpy one, but some flights are notorious for the level of turbulence they see. In a recent analysis, researchers used flight data since 2004 (as well as a couple of infamous historic flights) to determine a “bumpiness index” that people aboard each flight would experience, based on the plane’s accelerations and changes in acceleration (i.e., jerk).

The analysis confirmed that a 1989 flight into Hurricane Hugo was the bumpiest of all-time, followed by a 2022 flight into Hurricane Ian, which was notable for its side-to-side (rather than up-and-down) motions. Overall, they found that the most turbulent flights occurred in strong storms that would weaken in the next 12 hours, and that the bumpiest spot in a hurricane was on the inner edge of the eyewall. That especially turbulent region, they found, is associated with a large gradient in radar reflectivity, which could help future Hurricane Hunter pilots avoid such dangers. (Image credit: NOAA; research credit: J. Wadler et al.; via Eos)

Cooling Tower Demolition

As part of the demolition of a decommissioned coal-fired power plant in Nottinghamshire, workers simultaneously demolished eight cooling towers. The video is here. As the towers collapse, smoke and dust gets blown both out of the base and up each tower. The flow details are fascinating. The plumes have rings in them, perhaps related to how the blast’s waves reflect in the tower or how the structure itself fails. Vortex rings curl up as the rising plumes mix with the surrounding air. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have to replay it several times! (Image credit: BBC; submitted by jshoer)

Tides Widen Ice Cracks

When icebergs calve off of Arctic and Antarctic coastlines, it affects glacial flows upstream as well as local mixing between fresh- and seawater. A recent study points to ocean tides as a major factor in widening the ice cracks that lead to calving. The team built a simplified mathematical model of an ice shelf, taking into account the ice’s viscoelasticity, local tides, and winds. Then they compared the model’s predictions with satellite, GPS, and radar data of Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf, where an iceberg the size of Greater London broke off in 2023.

Between their model and the observation data, the team was able to show that the crack that preceded calving consistently grew during the spring tides, when tidal forces were at their strongest. The work gives us one more clue for refining our predictions of when major calving events are likely. (Image and research credit: O. Marsh et al.; via Gizmodo)

Pre-announcement of an #OpenPosition for a #lecturer in #Liphy (lab of #interdisciplinary #physics) in #Grenoble, #France

> Poste de #MCF section 28 (#Physique : Milieux denses et matériaux), sur un profil #dynamiqueDesFluides à l’échelle #nano et micro.

https://liphy.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/en/research/teams/modi-soft-matter-organization-dynamics-and-interfaces

A Glimpse of the Solar Wind

In December 2024, Parker Solar Probe made its closest pass yet to our Sun. In doing so, it captured the detailed images seen here, where three coronal mass ejections — giant releases of plasma, twisted by magnetic fields — collide in the Sun’s corona. Events like these shape the solar wind and the space weather that reaches us here on Earth. The biggest events can cause beautiful auroras, but they also run the risk of breaking satellites, power grids, and other infrastructure. (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Lab; video credit: NASA Goddard; via Gizmodo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1dTwEyuD44