The Okubo-Weiss Criteria in Two-Dimensional Hydrodynamic and Magnetohydrodynamic Flows

B. K. Shivamoggi, G. J. F. van Heijst

Published 2011-10-27, updated 2015-06-19Version 4

The Okubo [2]-Weiss [3] criterion is recast by using the 2D hydrodynamic Beltrami condition (Shivamoggi et al.[13]) that approximates the slow flow-variation ansatz imposed in its derivation. This turns out to provide an interesting interpretation of the Okubo-Weiss criterion very logically in terms of the topological properties of the underlying vorticity manifold. These developments are then extended to 2D quasi-geostrophic flows (via the potential divorticity framework), magnetohydrodynamic flows and electron magnetohydrodynamic flows (via the generalized magnetic flux framework) and the Okubo-Weiss criteria for these cases are considered.