Kolmogorov flow in two dimensions - the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes
equations with a sinusoidal body force - is considered over extended periodic
domains to reveal localised spatiotemporal complexity. The flow response
mimicks the forcing at small forcing amplitudes but beyond a critical value
develops a long wavelength instability. The ensuing state is described by a
Cahn-Hilliard-type equation and as a result coarsening dynamics are observed
for random initial data. After further bifurcations, this regime gives way to
multiple attractors, some of which possess spatially-localised time dependence.
Co-existence of such attractors in a large domain gives rise to interesting
collisional dynamics which is captured by a system of 5 (1-space and 1-time)
PDEs based on a long wavelength limit. The coarsening regime reinstates itself
at yet higher forcing amplitudes in the sense that only longest-wavelength
solutions remain attractors. Eventually, there is one global longest-wavelength
attractor which possesses two localised chaotic regions - a kink and antikink -
which connect two steady one-dimensional flow regions of essentially half the
domain width each. The wealth of spatiotemporal complexity uncovered presents a
bountiful arena in which to study the existence of simple invariant localised
solutions which presumably underpin all of the observed behaviour