Vorticity statistics in the two-dimensional enstrophy cascade

We report the first extensive experimental observation of the two-dimension al enstrophy cascade, along with the determination of the high order vortic ity statistics. The energy spectra we obtain an remarkably close to the Kra ichnan Batchelor expectation. The distributions of the vorticity increments , in the inertial range, deviate little from Gaussianity, and the correspon ding structure function exponents are indistinguishable from zero. It is th us shown that there is no substantial small scale intermittency in the enst rophy cascade, in agreement with recent theoretical analyses.