AFRL-Funded Researchers Identify Coherent Structures in Turbulent Airflow

  • Published
  • By Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • AFOSR
ARLINGTON, Va. --  An AFRL-funded team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., is working to detect and predict structures that create clear-air turbulence. The team's objective is to understand and forecast the atmospheric structures that underlie the airflow associated with the phenomenon. The researchers use nonlinear mathematical and visualization methods as a systematic means of identifying the components of the turbulence. They are also exploring the identification of important, but otherwise hidden, structures in Air Force (AF) weather forecasting models as another focus area.

The work is of importance to the safety of high-altitude AF operations and the stable pointing of onboard laser weapons. Eventually, the work may assist engineers in designing better planes, cars, submarines, and engines. Using weather forecast data, the researchers were able to accurately identify the locations of optical turbulence having the potential to affect laser beams. The team would also like to investigate the use of coherent structures in locating sources of atmospheric pollution or contamination.