Universal inverse power-law distribution for temperature and rainfall in the UK region

Atmospheric flows exhibit long-range spatiotemporal correlations manifested as the fractal geometry to the global cloud cover pattern concomitant with inverse power law form for power spectra of temporal fluctuations on all spacetime scales ranging from turbulence (centimetres-seconds) to climate (kilometres-years). Long-range spatiotemporal correlations are ubiquitous to dynamical systems in nature and are identified as signatures of self-organized criticality. Standard models in meteorological theory cannot explain satisfactorily the observed self-organized criticality in atmospheric flows. Mathematical models for simulation and prediction of atmospheric flows are nonlinear and do not possess analytical solutions. Finite precision computer realizations of nonlinear models give unrealistic solutions because of deterministic chaos, a direct consequence of round-off error growth in iterative numerical computations. Recent studies show that round-off error doubles on an average for each iteration of iterative computations. Round-off error propagates to the mainstream computation and gives unrealistic solutions in numerical weather prediction (NWP) and climate models, which incorporate thousands of iterative computations in longterm numerical integration schemes. An alternative non-deterministic cell dynamical system model for atmospheric flows developed by the author predicts the observed self-organized criticality as intrinsic to quantumlike mechanics governing flow dynamics. The model provides universal quantification for self-organized criticality in terms of the statistical normal distribution. Model predictions are in agreement with a majority of observed spectra of time series of several standard climatological data sets representative of disparate climatic regimes. Universal spectrum for natural climate variability rules out linear trends. Man-made greenhouse gas related atmospheric warming would result in intensification of natural climate variability, seen immediately in high frequency fluctuations such as QBO and ENSO and even shorter timescales. Model concepts and results of analyses are discussed with reference to possible prediction of climate change. Model concepts, if correct, rule out unambiguously, linear trends in climate. Climate change will only be manifested as increase or decrease in the natural variability. However, more stringent tests of model concepts and predictions are required before applications to such an important issue as climate change. The cell dynamical system model for atmospheric flows is a general systems theory applicable in general to all dynamical systems in other fields of science, such as, number theory, biology, physics and botany.

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Universal Inverse Power-Law Distribution for Temperature and Rainfall in the UK Region

Selvam

2017

Springer Atmospheric Sciences

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Meteorological parameters, such as temperature, rainfall, pressure etc., exhibit selfsimilar space-time fractal fluctuations generic to dynamical systems in nature such as fluid flows, spread of forest fires, earthquakes, etc. The power spectra of fractal fluctuations display inverse power-law form signifying long-range correlations. The author has developed a general systems theory which predicts universal inverse powerlaw form incorporating the golden mean for the fractal fluctuations of all size scales, i.e., small, large and extreme values. The model predicted distribution is in close agreement with observed fractal fluctuations in the historic month-wise temperature (maximum and minimum) and rainfall in the UK region. The present study suggests that fractal fluctuations result from the superimposition of an eddy continuum fluctuations. The observed extreme values result from superimposition of maxima (or minima) of dominant eddies (waves) in the eddy continuum.

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Universal inverse power-law distribution for temperature and rainfall in the UK region

Cited by 5 publications

References 28 publications

Noise or Random Fluctuations in Physical Systems: A Review

Noise or Random Fluctuations in Physical Systems: A Review

Self-organized Criticality: A Signature of Quantum-like Chaos in Atmospheric Flows

Universal Inverse Power-Law Distribution for Temperature and Rainfall in the UK Region

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