Two-dimensional turbulence

Alessandra Lanotte, CNR-ISAC, Lecce, Italy



After a brief review of the basic features of two-dimensional turbulence - existence of two quadratic inviscid invariants, double cascade scenario, coherent vortices -, we will concentrate on the statistical characterization of the inverse cascade of energy, in terms of symmetry restoration and universality properties. Recent theoretical results will also be discussed in the light of the large amount of experimental and numerical data now available on the subject.

The second part of the course will be devoted to discuss some relevant applications of two dimensional (or quasi-2D) turbulence in geophysical flows. Finally, we will mention open problems and the possible different approaches coming from other fields of statistical mechanics.