Question: I'm using flow = cv2.calcOpticalFlowFarneback() to calculate optical flow in a video and it gives me a numpy array with a shape of (height, width, 2) that contains the Fx and Fy values for each pixel (flow[:,:,0] = Fx and flow[:,:,1] = Fy). For calculating the divergence I'm using np.gradient like this: def divergence_npgrad(flow): Fx, Fy = flow[:, :, 0], flow[:, :, 1] F = [Fx, Fy] d = len(F) return np.ufunc.reduce(np.add, [np.gradient(F[i], axis=i) for i in range(d)])  Next, I want to calculate the curl. I know there is a curl function in sympy.physics.vector but I really don't get how is it working or how is it would apply to my flow. So I thought I could use np.gradient for this too. In 2D I need to calculate dFy/dx - dFx/dy for every pixel, so i wold be like this: def curl_npgrad(flow): Fx, Fy = flow[:, :, 0], flow[:, :, 1] dFx_dy = np.gradient(Fx, axis=1) dFy_dx = np.gradient(Fy, axis=0) curl = np.ufunc.reduce(np.subtract, [dFy_dx, dFx_dy]) return curl  Is it a right way to do this or am I missing something? Now if I have the curl, I want to make two plots with matplotlib. My point is that I want to show the vectors from flow with different colormaps. One plot would use the magnitude values of the vectors as colormap, normalized to (0-magnitude_max). The other plot would use the curl values as colormap, where the arrows are blue if the curl is negative and red if the curl is positive in that position. Here is what I'm trying to use: def flow_plot(flow, frame): frame = cv2.cvtColor(frame, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB) h, w = flow.shape[:2] dpi = 72 xinch = w / dpi yinch = h / dpi step = 24 y, x = np.mgrid[step / ((h % step) // 2):h:step, step / ((w % step) // 2):w:step].reshape(2, -1).astype(int) fx, fy = flow[y, x].T mag = np.sqrt(np.power(fx, 2) + np.power(fy, 2)) fx = fx / mag fy = fy / mag curl = curl_npgrad(flow) curl_map = curl[y, x] quiver_params = dict(cmap='Oranges', # for magnitude #cmap='seismic', # for curl norm=colors.Normalize(vmin=0.0, vmax=1.0), # for magnitude #norm = colors.CenteredNorm(), # for curl units='xy', scale=0.03, headwidth=3, headlength=5, minshaft=1.5, pivot='middle') fig = plt.figure(figsize=(xinch, yinch), dpi=dpi) plt.imshow(frame) plt.quiver(x, y, fx, fy, mag, **quiver_params) plt.gca().invert_yaxis() plt.gca().set_aspect('equal', 'datalim') plt.axis('off') fig.tight_layout(pad=0) fig.canvas.draw() img = np.frombuffer(fig.canvas.tostring_rgb(), dtype='uint8') img = img.reshape(fig.canvas.get_width_height()[::-1] + (3,)) img = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_RGB2BGR) img = cv2.flip(img, 0) plt.close(fig) return img  I'm converting the plot to a cv2 image so i can use it for opencv video writer. I noticed that if I'm not showing the original frame behind the plot, I have to invert the y axis and use -fy in plt.quiver(), if I want to show the frame behind, I have to invert the y axis too, can use fy, but than I have to flip the whole image afterwards. How does it make any sense? I can't get it. As for the curl, it's kinda messy for me. barely showing any color, random red an blue spots, not a buch of red/blue arrows where the fluid clearly rotating. It's like these: image1 of the messy curl, image2 of the messy curl Is it a bad way to calculate the curl for this kind of flow? What am I missing?

Answer: If I understand the way you've set up your axes correctly, you're missing a flow = np.swapaxes(flow, 0, 1) at the top of both divergence_npgrad and curl_npgrad. I tried applying your curl and divergence functions to simple functions where I already knew the correct curl and divergence. For example, I tried this function: F_x = x F_y = y  Produces this plot:  For this function, divergence should be high everywhere. Applying your function, it tells me that divergence is 0. Code to produce this array: import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt x,y = np.meshgrid(np.linspace(-2,2,10),np.linspace(-2,2,10)) u = x v = y field2 = np.stack((u, v), axis=-1) plt.quiver(x, y, field2[:, :, 0], field2[:, :, 1])  I also tried a function for testing curl: F_x = cos(x + y) F_y = sin(x - y)  Which produces this plot:  Code to produce this array: import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt x,y = np.meshgrid(np.linspace(0,2,10),np.linspace(0,2,10)) u = np.cos(x + y) v = np.sin(x - y) field = np.stack((u, v), axis=-1) plt.quiver(x, y, field[:, :, 0], field[:, :, 1])  Thanks to U of Mich. Math department for this example! For this function, curl should be highest around the center swirl. Applying your curl function to this, I get a result that curl is highest in the corners. Here's the code I tried which works: def divergence_npgrad(flow): flow = np.swapaxes(flow, 0, 1) Fx, Fy = flow[:, :, 0], flow[:, :, 1] dFx_dx = np.gradient(Fx, axis=0) dFy_dy = np.gradient(Fy, axis=1) return dFx_dx + dFy_dy def curl_npgrad(flow): flow = np.swapaxes(flow, 0, 1) Fx, Fy = flow[:, :, 0], flow[:, :, 1] dFx_dy = np.gradient(Fx, axis=1) dFy_dx = np.gradient(Fy, axis=0) curl = dFy_dx - dFx_dy return curl  Some explanation of why I think this is a correct change:  np.gradient(..., axis=0) provides the gradient across rows, because that's axis 0. In your input image, you have the shape (height, width, 2), so axis 0 actually represents height, or y. Using np.swapaxes(flow, 0, 1) swaps the order of the x and y axes of that array. Using np.ufunc.reduce is not required - you can use broadcasting instead and it will work fine. It's also a little easier to read.  Here are the results for using this code.  Here is the result of the divergence calculation on the first function.  Result: positive, constant value everywhere.  Here is the result of the curl calculation on the second function.  Result: a positive value centered on the swirly part of the function. (There's a change of axes here - 0,0 is in the top left.)