Welcome to Guenter Ahlers' Group Department of Physics and ITST
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Our group
conducts research in two distinct subfields of experimental
condensed matter physics. They are: Turbulence in a fluid heated
from below When a fluid is heated from below, convection will
occur when the temperature gradients are large enough. At even
much larger temperature differences, the convective flow becomes
so vigorous that the velocity field is turbulent (for a review
of this phenomenon written for an general audience of
physicists, please see a recent article in the open-access
journal Physics). Turbulent convection is an important process
in many respects. It occurs naturally in the Earth's atmosphere
and oceans and thus has short-term as well as long-term impact
on climate and weather. It occurs in the Earth's mantle and
contributes to the motion of continental plates and to
vulcanism. In the outer core of the Earth it determines the
magnetic field in which we live. It is the i