Upgrading the Experimental Capabilities of the Core Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at UCLA

有了这个奖项，加州大学洛杉矶分校“SpinLab”的研究人员将升级我们世界上独一无二的地球物理流体动力学实验室的所有基本设备。这些升级后的系统将允许研究人员和他的学生扩展他们进行的实验，以便更好地了解地球熔融金属核心中产生我们行星磁场的流动。这些升级还将为实验室的学生提供尖端实验室系统设计和操作方面的培训。该奖项还将促进成功的科学推广工作的继续扩大，最近开发了新的diy实验STEAM工具，可以在所有年龄段的学生的教室中使用。该奖项将使研究人员能够升级这个世界上独一无二的模拟地核对流的实验系统的能力。通过超声多普勒技术和立体激光测速测量，这些增强将使他们能够量化实验室实验中发展的流场的新方面（例如，二维速度，涡度和螺旋度图），并探索以前未被询问的新实验几何形状。此外，该实验室将更新加热和冷却系统，以产生与行星（和恒星）条件相关的更强烈的湍流对流。这些升级将使实验室能够进行下一阶段的实验，并在地球发电机模型和行星核心湍流的先进模型之间建立桥梁。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With this award, researchers in UCLA's "SpinLab" will upgrade all the essential equipment in our world-unique geophysical fluid dynamics laboratory. These upgraded systems will allow the reseacher and his students to expand the experiments they carry out in order to better understand flows occurring in Earth's molten metal core that generate our planetary magnetic field. These upgrades will also provide students in the lab with training in the design and operation of leading edge laboratory systems. This award will also promote the continued expansion of the successful science outreach efforts, most recently developing new do-it-yourself experimental STEAM tools that can be used in classrooms with students of all ages.This award will allow the researchers to upgrade the capabilities of this world-unique experimental systems that simulate convection in Earth's core. Through ultrasonic Doppler techniques and stereoscopic laser velocimetry measurements, these enhancements will allows them to quantify new aspects of the flow fields that develop in the lab experiments (e.g., 2D velocity, vorticity and helicity maps), and to explore new experimental geometries that have not been previously interrogated. Further, the lab will update the heating and cooling systems, to produce even more strongly turbulent convective flows relevant to planetary (and stellar) conditions. These upgrades will allow the lab to conduct the next stage of experiments and provide bridges between geodynamo models and advanced models of planetary core turbulence.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.