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The following are links to simulation movies which appear throughout this site.
(More to be added later.)
Animations of 3-D surface plots used in describing cardiac rhythm patterns.In a recent paper, we describe how complex rhythm patterns observed experimentally in small cardiac preparations can be explained the use of mathematical models involving only a few variables. The essential characteristics of these models are best illustrated in the form a few 3-D plots. In these movies, the plots are rotated to make their structure more obvious.
Typical Alfvén wave simulation (641K, movie frames are displayed as they are received). This movie shows the effect of a propagating inertial Alfvén wave (a wave which travels as wiggles on the Earth's magnetic field lines) on the electrons and ions which it encounters. Alfvén waves are thought to be one way energy can be transported from the Earth's outer magnetosphere and the solar wind down to an area where electrons can be accelerated. These accelerated electrons then race down the Earth's magnetic field lines, crashing into the ionosphere, thus producing the Northern lights. This simulation movie shows that Alfvén waves can indeed generate populations of these accelerated electrons. From the movie, it is clear that acceleration occurs as the electrons "surf" on the Alfvén waves, much as surfers gain speed by catching waves at the beach.
Four movies (The first is 1.8 Meg!) from our study of the Farley-Buneman instability an instability which occurs in the electrical current which flows above the Earth's equator in the ionosphere (the equatorial electrojet). The movies were presented as part of a talk given on the instability, at the U. of Iowa.