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A Complexity View of Rainfall

Ole Peters·Christopher Hertlein·Kim Christensen
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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.

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Ole Peters, Christopher Hertlein, Kim Christensen. 2002-01-25. A Complexity View of Rainfall. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.88.018701

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