Haboobs are a dust storm driven by the strong winds at the forefront of weather fronts and thunderstorms. Those powerful winds pick up dust in arid and semi-arid landscapes, creating billowing, turbulent clouds that appear downright apocalyptic. https://fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27809

Scientists have long hypothesized that the high electrical charge of thunderstorms could produce an opposite charge in the ground that would discharge from the forest canopy. But this phenomenon, known as a corona, had never been observed on actual trees. https://fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=28550

Sound is not something we can typically see, though there are ways to visualize it, including cymatics and special acoustic cameras. This video pursues a different tactic: using schlieren photography and stroboscopic lighting to show how sound waves reflect and d https://fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27668

When ice forms in salty water, it starts out mushy and porous. Salt does not freeze neatly into ice's crystalline structure, so the forming ice has pores and gaps where salty brine gathers. Over time, that changes. https://fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27952

When bubbles form atop the ocean or in our cups, they typically live short lives. Although the bubble can exchange fluid with the pool below, this only happens at the foot of the bubble cap. https://fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27494

A blue arctic fox bears the wind and snow of a Norwegian blizzard in this image by photographer Klaus Hellmich. The wind is strong enough to move snowflakes several centimeters in the time the camera's shutter is open. https://fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=28471

If you send a shock wave through a magnetized plasma--something that happens in both supernova explosions and inertial confinement fusion--it can trigger an instability known as the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=28345

When hurricanes hit coasts, they bring with them incredible storm surge, which puts buildings right in the middle of ocean waves. So engineers use scaled tests to understand how buildings get damaged. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=28385

Calculating turbulent flows like those found in the ocean and atmosphere is extremely expensive computationally. So researchers set an equation-discovery tool the task of finding better models for small-scale turbulence. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=28446

To help reduce greenhouse emissions, businesses are exploring systems that reduce a container ship's drag by releasing bubbles beneath them. But how do bubbles reduce drag? To find out, researchers simulated a bubbly flow that mimics the underside of a moving ship. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27111

In this latest project, the Beauty of Science team explores colorful crystallization as chemicals precipitate out of evaporating solutions. The variety of shapes and colors is incredible. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27932

Over the last 15 years or so, researchers have been exploring pilot-wave theory--originally proposed by De Broglie in the 1920s as a way to understand quantum mechanics--using hydrodynamic quantum analogs. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26913

When we first learn about states of matter, we're taught about three: solid, liquid, and gas. But reality is even weirder. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27379

On the outskirts of our solar system, two enigmatic giants loom: Uranus and Neptune. In terms of mass and size, both resemble many of the exoplanets discovered in recent years. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27736

A ring of hydrogen bubbles rises, rotating clockwise, in this video of electrolysis. But there are no fan blades to cause this swirl, so why do the bubbles rotate? fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26702

For tiny invertebrates like this one, water is a very different substance than we're used to. At this scale, surface tension is a force as powerful--or more so--than gravity. Droplets remain spherical, caught on long, spike-like hairs. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25495

Schlieren techniques are one of my favorite forms of flow visualization. They cleverly make the invisible visible through an optical set-up that's sensitive to changes in density. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27652

Cepheid variable stars pulsate in brightness over regular periods. That's one reason astronomers use them as a standard candle to judge distances--even for stars well outside our galaxy. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27671

Before the rise of railroads, canals provided critical commercial shipping infrastructure for many locations worldwide. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27532

During the winter months, those of us living in the mid-latitudes sometimes experience atmospheric rivers. Formed from the interaction of cold winter storms with warm, moist tropical air, atmospheric rivers can deliver intense rainfall across long distances. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27091

Light shining through misty spray creates a liquid rainbow in this photo by Ronja Linssen. Although mists and sprays--from waterfalls, waves, and more--seem insubstantial, they can be a major source of material transfer between the water and atmosphere. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25520

Although we are most familiar with the white, branching lightning caused by electrical discharge between clouds and the ground, there are many types of lightning. This fortuitous image captures two: tentacled red sprites and ring-like ELVES. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27370

How can you break water? By accelerating it so quickly that the pressure drop forms cavitation bubbles. #cavitation #flowvisualization #fluiddynamics #physics #science fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27678

In the team pursuit, a new drafting technique is helping U.S. speedskaters win. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=28327

Ski jumping is in the news this Olympic cycle after rumors that male competitors may be cheating in order to wear larger suits. #aerodynamics #Olymipcs #physics #science #skijumping fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27898

Next time you fill your water bottle, watch closely and see if you can spot a bubble heart like these. When a jet falls into a pool, it pulls air in with it. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27392

The 2026 Olympics include the debut of ski mountaineering (a.k.a. skimo), a sprint race heading both up and down the mountain on skis. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27512

This year's sliding events--bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton--will take place at the brand-new Cortina Sliding Center. Built on the site of a historic sliding track, this new venue came together in only the last couple of years. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27523

Ailsa Craig sits about 10 miles off the Scottish coast, a granite dome left behind by a volcanic event millions of years ago. This small, now-uninhabited crag is the birthplace for every Olympic curling stone. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27633

Welcome to another Olympic year and another FYFD celebration of the fluid physics that enable these sports! All Winter Olympic sports are required, per the IOC, to take place on snow or ice--one of the strangest substances we know of. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27385

Branching cracks wend through the slopes of Utah in this photograph by Matt Payne. It may seem strange to feature something so dry on a blog about fluid dynamics, but everything seen here depends as much on air and water as on soil, rock, and sand. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26688

Many biorobots are built after flies and bees--insects that rely heavily on flapping flight. To glide, researchers are turning instead to grasshoppers. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27489

Even though particles are not (strictly speaking) a fluid, they often behave like one. Here, researchers investigate what happens when two layers of particles--with different size and density--slide down an incline together. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26504

It's tough to simulate nonlinear wave dynamics, so scientists often test theories in wave flumes, where they can create more controlled waves than what we see in the wild. And now they're doing it in micron-sized wave flumes! fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27094

In 1604, astronomers first caught sight of Kepler's Supernova Remnant, a massive explosion some 17,000 light-years away. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27363

Grains of pollen are caught amid droplets on a spider's web in this award-winning image by John-Oliver Dum. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25396

On the surface of a gently vibrating liquid, a droplet can bounce indefinitely without coalescing, kept aloft by an air film too small to see. Now scientists have shown this is possible with a solid surface, too. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26210

The vivid bands of a gas giant like Jupiter come from the planet's combination of rotation and convection. It's possible to create the same effect in a lab by rapidly spinning a tank of water around a central ice core. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27114

When bubbles form in magma deep below the earth, volcanic eruptions follow. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27101

We often rely on water draining through beds of grains, whether it's the soil foundation beneath a building or the sand-and-gravel-filter used in water treatment. But how does water move through these tortuous porous passages? fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26910

Photographer Kevin Krautgartner captures the powerful waves of Western Australia from above. His latest series, Waves | Ocean Forces, features luminous turquoise waves, crystalline foam, and brilliant beaches. I could delight in staring at them for hours. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26674

Rogue waves were once the stuff of nautical legend. Tales of giant lone waves were considered sailors' tall tales, until an oil rig in the North Sea was hit by a 25.6-meter wave on 1 January 1995. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25993

When bubbles burst at an interface, both their exterior and interior get spread into the air. Here, researchers watch as a fog-filled bubble rises through silicone oil and settles as the surface. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26488

Engineers have been adapting biological materials into robotics in recent years. One of the latest versions of this trend is "necroprinting," in which researchers built a microscale 3D printer around a mosquito's proboscis. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26899

When an object like a sphere enters the water, it drags air into the water behind it, creating a cavity. Depending on the sphere's impact speed, the cavity might close first under the water, forming a deep seal, or at the surface with a surface seal. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26608

Spheres of a Volvox colonial algae glow green inside a droplet in this award-winning microphotograph by Jan Rosenboom. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25371

Venus is a world of extremes. A full rotation of the world takes 243 Earth days, but winds race around the planet at a speed that makes a Category 5 hurricane look sedate. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26135

Large-scale computational fluid dynamics simulations face many challenges. Among them is the need to capture both large physical scales--like those of Earth's atmospheric boundary layer--and small scales--like those of tiny eddies moving around a wind-turbine blade. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26896

Inside a fusion reactor, magnetically-contained plasma gets heated to more than one hundred million degrees. That heat, researchers observed, spreads much faster than originally predicted. Now a team from Japan has measurements showing how turbulence manages this feat. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27061

When placed on a vibrating oil bath, droplets have many wild behaviors, some of which mirror quantum mechanics. Even big droplets -- bigger than 2 millimeters in diameter -- can get in on the fun. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26495