Physical Review Journal Club: Extreme Vertical Drafts as Drivers of Lagrangian Dispersion in Stably Stratified Turbulent Flows
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
12 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. GMT, 6 p.m. CET
Video Link
The Physical Review Journal Club is back, this time with a discussion with author Christian Reartes (University of Buenos Aires), presenting their recently published Physical Review Fluids article ”Extreme vertical drafts as drivers of Lagrangian dispersion in stably stratified turbulent flows.”
After the presentation, the authors will answer questions from the audience in a live Q&A session, moderated by PRFluids Associate Editor Eckart Meiburg (University of California, Santa Barbara). Registration is free and a video recording will be provided to all registrants.
Summary:
Stratified turbulent flows are ubiquitous in geophysical systems, ranging from the atmosphere to the deep ocean. Under stable stratification, buoyancy forces suppress vertical motions, giving rise to a complex interplay between internal gravity waves and turbulent eddies. In such flows, the dispersion of Lagrangian particle pairs is a fundamental process with implications for mixing, transport, and the statistical properties of particles in geophysical and environmental flows. While extensive research has advanced our understanding of particle dispersion, the specific role of extreme turbulent events, particularly their impact on inertial particle dynamics, remains poorly understood.
By introducing a statistical framework to identify such extreme events, this study quantifies the relationship between extreme vertical drafts, particle dispersion, energy dissipation, and flow structure in stratified turbulence. The results demonstrate that extreme events not only govern dispersion dynamics but also play a key role in the redistribution of energy throughout the system. These insights open new pathways for improving the modeling of transport in geophysical flows, with applications ranging from atmospheric mixing and pollutant dispersion to the vertical transport of microplastics and biological material in the ocean.
Read ahead:
Extreme vertical drafts as drivers of Lagrangian dispersion in stably stratified turbulent flows
C. Reartes, P.D. Mininni, R. Marino
Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 014501
