Cascade Reversal
For 85 years Kolmogorov's 1941 law has been the bedrock of turbulence theory: energy always flows from large eddies down to small ones, dissipating as heat. Researchers just found a way to reverse it. Toggle between the two regimes and watch the difference.
→ forward cascade
CCW ↺CW ↻
Vortices
4
Large eddies
4
Small eddies
0
Energy flow
The science: Kolmogorov's 1941 theory established that in 3D turbulence, energy injected at large scales cascades to smaller and smaller eddies until viscosity converts it to heat — a one-way street. The 2026 discovery shows that under specific constraints (rotation, stratification, or confinement), the energy pipeline reverses: small-scale forcing drives energy upscale into large coherent vortices. This “inverse cascade” was previously thought to be exclusive to quasi-2D systems like ocean currents and atmospheric jets. Blue glows rotate counterclockwise; orange glows rotate clockwise. The white particles trace the induced velocity field.