Young scientists of the POI FEB RAS became winners of the competition for medals of the Russian Academy of Sciences with prizes

The Russian Academy of Sciences has announced the results of the competition for medals of the Russian Academy of Sciences with prizes for young scientists and students of higher education programs in 2025 (Decree of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences No. 153 dated 30.06.2026). The competition was attended by employees, students, postgraduates and doctoral students of scientific organizations in Russia under the age of 35 years inclusive.

The winners in the field of oceanology, atmospheric physics and geography have become the employees of the Laboratory of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems – Alexander Alekseevich Udalov, a 4th-year graduate student, Alexander Alekseevich Didov, Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics, and Elena Vladimirovna Novoselova, Ph.D. in Geography. Their series of papers on the topic "Physics of oceanic processes: circulation, vortices, fronts and transport paths", recognized by the expert commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences as the best, covers the period 2018-2025 and consists of 39 publications in highly rated journals, 11 of which were published in the journals of the first quartile of the Web of Science database.

The series of papers is devoted to the fundamental study of the physics of meso- and submesoscale dynamics of the ocean and related transport processes. The focus is on the nonlinear structure of currents, the interaction of vortices with large–scale circulation, the formation of transport barriers and the features of chaotic advection in real marine conditions. The works combine methods of theoretical physics, dynamical systems theory, satellite altimetry, geoinformatics, Lagrangian analysis and numerical modeling, forming an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the oceanic environment.

 
Figure 1 – Diagram of the construction of an R-cylinder (for contouring an oceanic vortex) and the results of Lagrangian modeling of tracer trajectories for the Lofoten vortex. a) A parallelepiped of initial conditions used for seeding passive tracers for Lagrangian trajectory calculations. b–d) Classification of tracers relative to the R-cylinder: green indicates tracers that are currently still inside the vortex, but will leave it in the future; yellow indicates tracers that have already crossed the R-cylinder and left the vortex, forming an elongated thread; The pink color highlights the core of the vortex, the area where the tracers are securely held throughout the entire time interval under consideration; gray and black colors show shadows on the edges of the parallelepiped.

The central place in the research is occupied by the use of Lagrangian methods, which make it possible to identify the hidden dynamic structure of flows that are inaccessible using classical Eulerian analysis. With their help, the three-dimensional structure of oceanic vortices is described, the modes of water exchange between the core of the vortices and their periphery are determined, and long-term transport trajectories in various regions of the World Ocean are revealed. 

Figure 2 – Distribution of temperature (°C) and salinity (PSU) in the Lofoten vortex area, obtained based on the ROMS model at different depths (sections for August 24, 2008 are shown). The color fill indicates thermohaline properties, and the arrows indicate the horizontal flow field. The location of the center of the Lofoten vortex is indicated by ▲; the centers of cyclones are indicated by ▼; hyperbolic points - ×.

Within the framework of the fundamental part of the cycle, theoretical methods for the analysis of chaotic advection, bifurcations of stationary points, stable and unstable trajectories are developed. Based on these approaches, new algorithms for the automatic identification of vortex structures – HEPTA (Hyperbolic and Elliptical Points Tracking Algorithm) and LEBDA (Lagrangian Eddy Boundary Delineation Algorithm) have been developed, which make it possible to quantify the cores and boundaries of vortices, identify flow separation zones, localization and interaction of vortex structures in the ocean. These methods fundamentally expand the tools of physical oceanology: they provide a rigorous and reproducible description of coherent structures in unsteady currents, which was previously practically unattainable for real ocean data. The application of theoretical physics methods to observed and model fields has become a key distinguishing feature of the presented works and has allowed us to move from traditional descriptive analysis to a deep, quantitative study of the internal geometry and dynamics of ocean currents.

The developed methods were used for satellite altimetry data, Argo profiles, and the results of numerical experiments, which made it possible to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of mesoscale vortices, identify the mechanisms of their formation, transformation, and dissipation, and establish patterns of transfer of water masses and impurities in various regions of the World Ocean.

Each winner of the competition will be awarded a medal, a laureate's diploma and a badge, and the prize of 100,000 rubles will be distributed equally among the authors.

Congratulations to our colleagues on the high appreciation of their work by the Russian Academy of Sciences and wish them further success in exploring the oceans!