Rossby Vortices, Spiral Structures, Solitons

The authors present the results of their simple hydrodynamic laboratory simulations, which have been created to provide insight into the nature of the complex dynamics of plasmas, particularly in meteorological or astrophysical systems.

---

The understanding of the complex dynamics in plasmas, in meteorological and astrophysical systems etc. is of great relevance not only to academic research but also to our daily lives. Computer simulations are still a long way from yielding satisfactory results and it is thus all the more striking that the simple (hydrodynamic) laboratory simulations devised by the authors provide so much insight into the nature of these phenomena and even facilitate predictions.