Each year, the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society invites submissions for the Gallery of Fluid Motion, which "is intended to be a visual record of the aesthetic and science of contemporary fluid mechanics”. The submissions are judged for their combination of scientific interest and striking visual qualities and the top-ranked video and poster entries are designated as "Milton van Dyke Awardees" or (second rank) as "Gallery Winners".

This year a team consisting of Alexander Kuhn and Hans-Christian Hege from ZIB, Tobias Günther and Markus Gross from ETHZ, and Holger Theisel from University of Magdeburg has been awarded a Milton van Dyke Award.

In their contribution "Progressive Monte-Carlo Rendering of Atmospheric Flow Features Across Scales” they demonstrated an advanced technique to visualize multiple length scales of dense flow fields and Lagrangian patterns therein.

The flow has been simulated by state-of-the-art simulation models for each scale (1000 km, 100 km and 10 km). The visualizations provide insight into the structural differences and patterns that occur on each scale and highlight the complexity of flow phenomena in our atmosphere. For visualization they used an unbiased and consistent Monte-Carlo rendering technique.

Information about the picture: Finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) field of an atmospheric fluid flow at 10 km scale, representing a cloud-topped boundary layer. The flow has been computed with the UCLA-LES model, using large-scale information from the COSMO-DE model. The depicted convective flow patterns (e.g. separating plumes visible in the FTLE field) are of central interest, since they are tightly connected with cloud production and flow interaction processes.