The East African Institute for Fundamental Research (EAIFR)  wishes to inform those who may be interested of a GEO@EAIFR webinar. This seminar will take place on March 21, 2025 and will be broadcast live on ZOOM. It will also be recorded and later posted on the ICTP-EAIFR YouTube channel, where one can find the previous recorded GEO@EAIFR webinars. Below all the details:

Speaker: Professor of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Jon Aurnou,  Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Title: Tabletop Atmospheric Rivers

When: March 21, 2025 at 5:00 pm (Kigali time).

Register in advance for this meeting by clicking here.

All are very welcome.

Abstract: Large-scale atmospheric and oceanic fluid dynamics are dominated by the effects of planetary rotation and, thus, fundamentally differ from the human-scale, non-rotating fluid motions that we are acquainted with. In this talk, we will carry out a simple LEGO-based desktop rotating fluid dynamics experiment to generate an analog atmospheric jet stream. This jet tends to break apart, taking the form of midlatitude winter-time storms with analog atmospheric rivers tending to wrap around the storm peripheries. Assuming the desktop experimental powers-that-be are beneficent, the essential dynamics underlying atmospheric river formation will be demonstrated, and possibly even elucidated!

Biography:  Jon Aurnou is a professor of geophysics and planetary physics in the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.  There he directs the Simulated Planetary Interiors Lab (SPINLab), where his group carries out experimental-theoretical studies the rotating fluid dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics that occurs in planetary and stellar interiors.  In addition, Aurnou’s group has been developing LEGO-based rotating fluids hardware, via the DIYnamics Project, with the goal of making geophysical fluid dynamics experiments as broadly accessible as possible.