Critical phenomena in atmospheric precipitation

Details Critical phenomena in atmospheric precipitation Critical phenomena in atmospheric precipitation

2006-06-02

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0606076v1

Nature Physics 2, 393-396 (June 2006)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Statistical Mechanics

5 pages, 3 figures

Scientific paper

10.1038/nphys314

Critical phenomena near continuous phase transitions are typically observed on the scale of wavelengths of visible light[1]. Here we report similar phenomena for atmospheric precipitation on scales of tens of kilometers. Our observations have important implications not only for meteorology but also for the interpretation of self-organized criticality (SOC) in terms of absorbing-state phase transitions, where feedback mechanisms between order- and tuning-parameter lead to criticality.[2] While numerically the corresponding phase transitions have been studied,[3, 4] we characterise for the first time a physical system believed to display SOC[5] in terms of its underlying phase transition. In meteorology the term quasi-equilibrium (QE)[6] refers to a state towards which the atmosphere is driven by slow large-scale processes and rapid convective buoyancy release. We present evidence here that QE, postulated two decades earlier than SOC[7], is associated with the critical point of a continuous phase transition and is thus an instance of SOC.

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