Peter Goldreich Peter Goldreich Ph.D., Cornell University Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Physics Strong, Weak, and Interstellar Turbulence Nature of Turbulence Turbulence is a term applied to the irregular motions of a fluid. It comes in many forms.
Strong turbulence is characterized by the absence of long-lived structures.
Primarily for that reason, it continues to defy dynamical description. Strong turbulence occurs in atmospheres and oceans under conditions where the Reynolds number is large. The Kolmogoroff spectrum provides a simple scaling for three-dimensional, hydrodynamical turbulence. It describes how energy introduced at large scales cascades to progressively smaller scales ultimately to be dissipated by viscosity. Two-dimensional strong turbulence has a different dynamics.