The red isosurfaces represent columns of high vorticity, which have the potential to spawn tornadoes. The blue ribbons show wind velocity at two planes, about 600 and 4,800 meters above ground level. The TCS will help advance research in molecular biology. The ability to decode clues in amino acids that determine protein shapes could have great benefit in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Turbulence Studies Computational scientists working with the TCS may be able to find previously undetectable patterns in turbulence, which recent research at the PSC shows may be inherently more structured than has been thought.
Turbulence consists of irregular fluid motions that vary greatly over time.
In a large-scale environment, turbulence and other forces, such as atmospheric pressure and weather fronts, influence each other. Historically, mathematical physicists have believed turbulent movements were random and unstructured. As a result, they were unable to explain why Jupiter's Red Spot, a famous example of a long-lived turbulent vortex, has been around since Galileo's time. This sequence shows how planetary turbulence changes from random and disoriented to a coherent, organized structure. Seismic modeling can lead to safer, more efficient and economical structures in areas like Southern California, where the Los Angeles basin's size and dense population pose complex problems for computational scientists.