Formation of the "superconducting" core in turbulent thermal convection.

A sinusoidal temperature perturbation is superimposed on the bottom plate of a cylindrical convection cell, and its decay is measured at the cell midheight. Rayleigh numbers up to Ra=10(13) and aspect ratios 1 and 4 are considered. The technique allows a dynamic measurement of the height of the layer interposed between the superconducting core and the boundary. This deduced height is in good agreement with results from recent numerical simulations.