Individual Vortex Searching Algorithm

The turbulent flows consist of vortices and other coherent structures, whose motion is such highly ordered, that it is usually considered to be random. We try to bring light into this problem by using the ideas coming from research of superfluid flows, where the turbulence consists of quantized vortices - linear topological singularities in the macroscopic order parameter. We present an algorithm developed for searching of individual vortices in an experimentally obtained 2D flow-field of a classical fluid (e.g. air). This algorithm directly fits the flow-field by the Gauss's model of vortex minimizing energy of the rest. The statistics of the reconstructed vortices can help us to understand the turbulence from another point of view.