Workshop on rotating convection from the lab to the stars

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

Substances that make up the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and some interior areas are all seen to rotate. Scientists also see the same actions in the Sun, the other smaller and larger planets in our Solar System, as well as in other stars and planets found orbiting other stars. Rotation clearly affects the spread of heat, chemical compositions, and physical processes. It can drive circulation on the large scales we see from planets to stars. The "Rotating Convection: from the Lab to the Stars" meeting will bring together an international group of people who study different aspects of rotating convection to review the current state of this field, and plan future studies. The conference will last five days and have talks and posters mixed with group discussions. This conference will serve the national interest by promoting the progress of science when plans are made to coordinate future scientific studies of rotating convection to be most productive. Funding will support the travel of early-career participants from the United States. Rotation directly influences convection by affecting the transport rates of heat, chemical species, and angular momentum. It can therefore drive large-scale circulations, and large-scale inhomogeneities. The interaction of rotation and convection is complex and takes different forms depending on the parameter regime considered (e.g. high momentum/heat transfer oceanic convection compared to intermediate atmospheric and planetary convection, to low stellar convection). Understanding the complexity of fluid motions that derive from this interaction is a longstanding problem that can only be studied through a combination of experimental, numerical, mathematical and observational research. The principal goal of this workshop is to identify fundamental questions to be addressed in rotating convection research, and develop a research agenda for the future. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.