Really great observations - thank you! I already use the method you described - curl is mixed with some amount of gradient to artificially bring color from the bottom layers. It can be observed at the center of the red cyclone in the last YT clip.
Keep in mind - i wasn't going for true fluid mechanics - I just used some of the flow patterns observed in real fluids and layered them on top of each other to give the illusion of a more complex behavior.
As for the sharpening - it is used to counteract the blurring effect of interpolating the color texture every frame.
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