Tag Archives: Vortex

Planetary Scientists Discover Seasonal Ozone Layers Formed by Mars’s Arctic Vortex

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Polar water is generated during the Martian season, which occurs due to the planet’s axis being tilted at an angle of 25.2 degrees, as explained by Dr. Kevin Olsen from Oxford and his colleagues at Latmos, CNRS, CNRS, Space Research Institute, Open University, and NASA.

This perspective view of Mars’ Arctic Ice Cap showcases its unique dark troughs arranged in a spiral pattern. The image is derived from observations made by ESA’s Mars Express, utilizing elevation data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor’s Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter. Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/NASA/MGS/MOLA Science team.

“The polar vortex’s atmosphere, extending from near the surface to around 30 km high, experiences extremely low temperatures, approximately 40 degrees Celsius lower than the surrounding area,” stated Dr. Olsen.

“In such frigid conditions, most of the water vapor in the atmosphere freezes and accumulates in the ice cap, resulting in ozone formation within the vortex.”

Normally, ozone is destroyed by reacting with molecules generated when ultraviolet radiation decomposes water vapor.

However, once all water vapor is depleted, there are no reactive molecules left for ozone, allowing it to accumulate in the vortex.

“Ozone plays a crucial role for Mars. It is a reactive form of oxygen that indicates the pace of chemical reactions occurring in the atmosphere,” Olsen noted.

“By investigating the levels of ozone and their variances, we gain insight into how the atmosphere evolves over time and whether Mars once had a protective ozone layer similar to Earth.”

Slated for launch in 2028, ESA’s Rosalind Franklin Rover aims to uncover evidence of life that may have existed on Mars.

The possibility that Mars had a protective ozone layer, safeguarding its surface against harmful ultraviolet radiation from space, enhances the likelihood of ancient life-sustaining conditions on the planet billions of years ago.

Polar vortices are produced during the Martian season as a consequence of the axial tilt of 25.2 degrees.

Similar to Earth, an atmospheric vortex forms above Mars’ North Pole at the end of summer and persists through spring.

On Earth, polar vortices can destabilize, losing their structure and shifting southward, often bringing cold weather to mid-latitudes.

A similar phenomenon can occur with Mars’ polar water vortex, which provides an opportunity to explore its internal dynamics.

“Studying the Northern Pole’s winter on Mars presents challenges due to the absence of sunlight, akin to conditions on Earth,” Dr. Olsen explained.

“By analyzing the vortex, one can differentiate between observations made inside and outside it, providing insight into ongoing phenomena.”

The atmospheric chemical suite aboard ESA’s trace gas orbiter examines Mars’ atmosphere by capturing sunlight filtered through the planet’s limb while the sun is positioned behind it.

The specific wavelengths of absorbed sunlight reveal which molecules are present in the atmosphere and their altitudes above the surface.

Nonetheless, this method is ineffective during the complete winter darkness on Mars when the sun does not illuminate the Arctic region.

The only chance to observe the vortex is during moments when its circular shape is lost, but additional data is required to pinpoint when and where this occurs.

To enhance their research, the scientists utilized NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Mars Climate Sounder instrument, measuring temperature variations to gauge the vortex’s extent.

“We sought sudden drops in temperature, which indicate entry into the vortex,” Dr. Olsen noted.

“By comparing ACS observations with data from Mars’ climate sounders, we observed significant atmospheric differences within the vortex compared to the surrounding air.”

“This presents a fascinating opportunity to deepen our understanding of Mars’ atmospheric chemistry and how polar night conditions shift as ozone accumulates.”

The findings were presented at the EPSC-DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki, Finland, this month.

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K. Olsen et al. 2025. What’s happening in the Arctic Vortex of Mars? EPSC Abstract 18: EPSC-DPS2025-1438; doi: 10.5194/epsc-dps2025-1438

Source: www.sci.news

Video: Flamingo Creates a Vortex with Its Beak to Capture Prey

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Witnessing how flamingos feed is truly a captivating experience. They tilt their heads in the water and perform a charming waddling dance, sifting through small crustaceans, insects, microscopic algae, and other minute aquatic morsels in shallow waters.

Victor Ortega Zimenez, a biologist from the University of California, Berkeley, recalls being captivated by this behavior in 2019 during a family visit to the Atlanta Zoo. Since then, he has pondered what transpires beneath the water’s surface.

“While the birds were stunning to observe, my main question was, ‘What hydrodynamic principles guide the filter feeding behavior in flamingos?'” he shared.

Upon returning home, he was struck by the lack of scientific literature on the subject, prompting him to embark on his own research journey. After years of careful investigation, he and his team made remarkable discoveries, detailed in a recent publication by the National Academy of Sciences. They revealed that flamingos actively use the physics of water flow to sweep up prey and direct it into their mouths.

“We’re disputing the common notion that flamingos are merely passive filter feeders,” Dr. Ortega Zimenez stated. “Just as spiders create webs, flamingos generate vortices.”

Dr. Ortega Zimenez collaborated with three extraordinarily supportive flamingos from the Nashville Zoo: Matty, Marty, and Cayenne. Zookeepers trained these birds to feed in transparent containers, allowing researchers to capture their feeding behaviors using high-speed cameras and fluid dynamics techniques. The team introduced oxygen bubbles and food particles to visualize the water flow facilitated by the birds. After observing live flamingos, they constructed a 3D model of a flamingo’s head to further investigate its biomechanics.

The researchers found that flamingos frequently and quickly retracted their heads while feeding. Each movement generated tornado-like vortices, drawing particles from the bottom to the water’s surface. Additional experiments with mechanical beaks revealed that flamingos rapidly pound their beaks while partially submerged, directing the flow of water straight to their mouths and aiding in prey capture. Their uniquely shaped L-shaped beaks played a crucial role in creating vortices and recirculating water. They utilized the surface layer for feeding, reaping the benefits of their specialized feeding techniques.

Another “surprising discovery” involved the flamingos’ feet, as Dr. Ortega Zimenez noted. Researchers explored this through mechanical models of flamingo feet and computational simulations. The dance-like movements underwater contributed to the vortices, propelling additional particles toward the waiting mouths of the birds, which feed upside down in the water. Collectively, these findings indicate that flamingos are “superfeeding machines,” employing their entire bodies in the feeding process.

Biophysicist Sunghwan Jung from Cornell University commended the study for showcasing how biological morphology and motion interact functionally with surrounding fluids.

Alejandro Rico Gevala, an evolutionary biologist at Washington University in Seattle, who was not involved in the research, also concurred, stating that the new findings challenge the idea of flamingos as merely passive filter feeders. “Numerous hypotheses have attempted to explain how their peculiar bills function,” he remarked.

In addition to elucidating that mystery, the study reveals “a distinctly evolved method for capturing elusive small prey,” he added. This research hints at another possible evolutionary purpose for the birds’ webbed feet, beyond simply functioning as paddles.

Dr. Ortega Zimenez, fueled by curiosity about the dynamics of water flow used by flamingos, is now planning to investigate what occurs within the bird’s beak during feeding. Ultimately, such discoveries may lead to bioinspired technologies aimed at addressing issues like toxic algae and microplastics, he said.

“What is the essence of filter feeding in flamingos?” he questioned. “As scientists, we aspire to understand both the shape and function of these fascinating and enigmatic birds.”

Source: www.nytimes.com

New Study Finds Polar Vortex Surrounding the Sun

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Polar vortices exist in the atmospheres of planets ranging from rocky Earth-like planets to gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. However, currently not much is known about their presence and characteristics on the Sun due to the lack of direct observations in the polar regions. Unlike planetary atmospheres, the Sun’s underground layers are greatly influenced by the presence of magnetic fields. New research shows that the solar cycle’s magnetic fields provide the mechanism for the formation of polar vortices in the Sun.

On August 31, 2012, the corona, a long filament of solar material suspended in the Sun’s atmosphere, erupted into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. CME traveled at more than 900 miles per second. Although it did not fly directly towards Earth, the single shot connected with Earth’s magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, and caused the aurora borealis to appear on the night of September 3rd. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

“No one can say exactly what’s going on at the solar pole,” says Dr. Mausmi Dikpati, a senior scientist at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research’s High Altitude Observatory.

“But this new study gives us an interesting look at what we might expect to find when we are able to observe the solar pole for the first time.”

It is not surprising that some kind of polar vortex may exist on the Sun.

These rotating geological formations develop in the fluid surrounding rotating bodies due to the Coriolis force and are observed on most planets in the solar system.

On Earth, vortices rotate high in the atmosphere around both the north and south poles.

When these vortices are stable, frigid air is trapped at the poles, but when they weaken and become unstable, that cold air penetrates toward the equator, creating cold air in the midlatitudes. cause

NASA’s Juno mission has returned breathtaking images of Jupiter’s polar vortices, showing there are eight tightly packed vortices around the gas giant’s north pole and five around its south pole.

Saturn’s polar vortex, observed by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, is hexagonal at the north pole and more circular at the south pole.

These differences provide scientists with clues to the composition and dynamics of each planet’s atmosphere.

Polar vortices have also been observed on Mars, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn’s moon Titan, so the fact that the Sun (also a rotating body surrounded by fluid) has such a feature may be obvious in some ways. yeah.

However, the sun is fundamentally different from planets and satellites, which have atmospheres. The plasma surrounding the sun is magnetic.

How that magnetism affects the formation and evolution of the Sun’s polar vortex, or whether it forms at all, remains a mystery. This is because humans have never sent a probe into space that can observe the poles of the sun.

In fact, our observations of the Sun are limited to views of the Sun’s face when it points towards the Earth, which only provides hints about what’s happening at the poles.

Astronomers have never observed the sun’s poles, so the study authors turned to computer models to fill in the blanks about what the sun’s polar vortex looks like.

What they discovered is that the Sun does indeed likely have a unique polar vortex pattern that evolves as the solar cycle unfolds and depends on the strength of the particular cycle.

Simulations show that a tight ring of polar vortices forms at about 55 degrees latitude, which corresponds to Earth’s Arctic Circle, at the same time that a phenomenon called “polar plunge” begins.

At the maximum of each solar cycle, the magnetic field at the sun’s poles disappears and is replaced by a magnetic field of the opposite polarity.

This flip-flop is preceded by a “polar plunge” in which a magnetic field of opposite polarity begins to move toward the pole from about 55 degrees latitude.

After formation, the vortices move towards the poles within the constricting ring, releasing the vortices as the circle closes, until eventually only a pair of vortices directly adjacent to the poles remain, completely disappearing during solar maximum.

The number of vortices that form and their configuration as they move toward the poles changes with the strength of the solar cycle.

These simulations provide a missing piece to the puzzle of how the Sun’s magnetic field behaves near the poles and could help answer some fundamental questions about the Sun’s solar cycle.

For example, many scientists have traditionally used the strength of the magnetic field “pushing to the poles” as a proxy for how strong future solar cycles are likely to be.

However, the mechanism of how they are connected, if at all, is not clear.

The simulation also provides information that can be used to plan future missions to observe the Sun.

In other words, this result shows that some form of polar vortex is observable during all parts of the solar cycle except during solar maximum.

“You could launch a solar mission and arrive at the pole at exactly the wrong time,” says Scott McIntosh, also of the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research’s High Altitude Observatory.

Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between NASA and ESA, may give researchers their first glimpse of the solar pole, but the first glimpse will be close to solar maximum.

Scientists say a mission aimed at observing the poles and providing researchers with multiple simultaneous views of the sun could help solve long-standing questions about the sun’s magnetic field.

Dr. McIntosh said, “Our conceptual boundaries are that we currently operate from only one perspective.”

“To make significant progress, we need the necessary observations to test our hypotheses and see if simulations like this are correct.”

of result will appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Mausumi Dikpati others. 2024. Magnetohydrodynamic mechanism of solar polar vortex formation. PNAS 121 (47): e2415157121;doi: 10.1073/pnas.2415157121

Source: www.sci.news

Researchers Develop Large Quantum Vortex to Replicate Black Hole Properties

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Researchers created tornado-like vortices in superfluid helium

Yoshigin/Shutterstock

Giant quantum vortices could allow researchers to study black holes. This vortex is a special form of liquid helium vortex that exhibits quantum effects. The result has some properties similar to a black hole and acts as a kind of simulator.

In the region around a black hole, the laws of gravity and quantum mechanics interact, producing effects that cannot be observed elsewhere in the universe. This makes these regions particularly important to study. “There are interesting physics happening around black holes, but many of them are out of our reach,” he says. Silke Weinfurtner at the University of Nottingham, UK. “Thus, we can use these quantum simulators to investigate phenomena that occur around black holes.”

To build the quantum simulator, Weinfurtner and his colleagues used superfluid helium, which flows at a very low viscosity, 500 times lower than water. Because it moves without friction, this form of helium exhibits unusual quantum effects and is known as a quantum fluid. The researchers filled a tank with helium with a rotating propeller at the bottom. As the propeller rotated, a tornado-like vortex was generated in the fluid.

“Similar vortices have been created in physical systems other than superfluid helium, but their strength is generally at least several orders of magnitude weaker,” he says. Patrick Svanchara, is also enrolled at the University of Nottingham and is part of the team. The strength and size of the vortex are critical to producing an interaction significant enough to observe between the vortex and the remaining fluid in the tank.

The vortices in this work were a few millimeters in diameter, much larger than other stable vortices created to date. quantum fluid In the past. In quantum liquids, rotation only occurs in tiny “packets” called quanta, which are essentially tiny vortices, so creating such large vortices is difficult. Many of them tend to become unstable when clustered, but the experimental setup here allows the researchers to combine about 40,000 rotating quanta to form what is called a giant quantum vortex. It's done.

“This is an experimental masterpiece,” he says Jeff Steinhauer He received his PhD from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, a pioneer in laboratory simulations of black holes. “They took a very well-established, old, classic technology called superfluid helium and did something really new with it, significantly increasing their technical capabilities compared to what had been done in the past. .”

The researchers observed how small waves in the fluid interacted with vortices. This process mimics the way the universe's cosmic field interacts with a rotating black hole. They discovered hints of a black hole phenomenon called ringdown mode. This phenomenon occurs after two black holes combine and the resulting single black hole is shaken by the residual energy of the combination.

Now that it has been established that this type of vortex exhibits behavior similar to that seen in black holes, researchers plan to use quantum vortices to study more elusive phenomena. “This is an excellent starting point for investigating some black hole physics processes, seeking new insights and potentially discovering hidden treasures along the way,” Weinfurtner says. .

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Source: www.newscientist.com