A Complexity View of Rainfall

Preprint

25 January 2002

preprint
Published by arXiv in arXiv

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.cond-mat/0201468

Abstract

We show that rain events are analogous to a variety of nonequilibrium relaxation processes in Nature such as earthquakes and avalanches. Analysis of high-resolution rain data reveals that power laws describe the number of rain events versus size and number of droughts versus duration. In addition, the accumulated water column displays scale-less fluctuations. These statistical properties are the fingerprints of a self-organized critical process and may serve as a benchmark for models of precipitation and atmospheric processes.

Keywords

STATISTICAL PROPERTIES
COMPLEXITY VIEW
PRECIPITATION
WATER COLUMN
FINGERPRINTS
RAIN EVENTS
EARTHQUAKES
DROUGHTS
RAINFALL

All Related Versions

Version 1, 2002-01-25, ArXiv
Published version: Physical Review Letters, 88 (1), 018701.

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