Windows to Complexity 2009I

Turbulence - From Basics to Geodynamics

February 9.-10. 2009, Münster

The attempt to understand complex systems, often summarized under the topic nonlinear science, is one of the  biggest and most interesting challanges of modern Science. One famous example from this class of problems is the turbulent motion of fluids and gases. Turbulence often served as paradigm for complexity. During the last century the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems was strongly influenced by turbulence research and vice versa. Additionally its relevance for engineering applications and scientific fields ranging from geophysics to astrophysics makes this phenomeneon between chaos and self organization an interesting subject of scientific research.
The goal of the workshop is to bring together people from basic turbulence research and the geophysical field to see to which extend turbulence is relevant for geophysical systems and which results from basic research are important for the understanding of phenomenons like the geodynamo.

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Invited Speakers

U. Christensen Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research
Scaling laws for dynamos in rotating spheres: From planets to stars

R. Grauer University Bochum
Turbulence: The Lagrangian viewpoint

G.J.F van Heijst Eindhoven University of Technology
Turbulence in Flatland

K. Reuter Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
Nonlinear MHD dynamo simulations in spherical geometry

J. Peinke  University Oldenburg
A stochastic approach to turbulence - the Eulerian viewpoint

J.F. Pinton  Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS-Lyon
A self-sustained  experimental dynamo generated by turbulent motions

S. Stellmach University of California Santa Cruz
Mechanisms of spontaneous layer formation in double diffusive convection

A. Tilgner Universty Göttingen
Convection, inertial modes, and magnetic fields: Applications of nonlinear dynamics in geophysics