Detecting vortices in fluid dynamics simulations using computer vision

Vortices are patches of fluid revolving around a central axis. They are ubiquitous in fluid dynamics. To the human eye, detecting vortices is a trivial task thanks to our inherent ability to identify patterns. To solve this task automatically, we developed the Vortector pipeline which was used to identify and characterize vortices in around one million snapshots of planet-disk interaction simulations in the context of planet formation. From the emergence of two regimes of vortex lifetime, one of which shows very long-lived vortices, we conclude that future resolved disk observations will predominantly detect vortices in the outer parts of protoplanetary disks.