An exploration of dinoflagellate bioluminescence for quantifiable flow visualization

Dinoflagellates are responsible for many of the ethereal and entrancing glowing algal blooms seen on beaches around the world. Over the past few years, dinoflagellate blooms have been observed off the coasts of Tasmania and southern California, with reports of similar phenomena dating back to at least 500 BC. Bioluminescent algae illuminate flows around the world in breathtaking displays via a cellular response to shear stress. Can they additionally illuminate the flow physics underlying these phenomena? In this work, we explore the utility of these algae for quantitative flow visualization. Nontoxic species of bioluminescent algae, with their broad global distribution, are robust and easily reared in laboratory environments; as such, they are a promising candidate for the analysis of biological and environmental flows. Illuminated cells act as tracer particles, enabling their utilization for image-based velocimetry. Further, given that the shear stresses required to elicit luminescence and temporal kinetics of elicited flashes have been characterized for several species, it may be possible to map observed bioluminescence to a time-evolving shear field. We investigate these possibilities through the visualization and analysis of several flow phenomena.