Self-Organized Criticality in Earth Systems

Self-Organized Criticality in Earth Systems
Author: Stefan Hergarten
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2002-05-27
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9783540434528

Self-organized criticality (SOC) has become a magic word in various scientific disciplines; it provides a framework for understanding complexity and scale invariance in systems showing irregular fluctuations. In the first 10 years after Per Bak and his co-workers presented their seminal idea, more than 2000 papers on this topic appeared. Seismology has been a field in earth sciences where the SOC concept has already deepened the understanding, but there seem to be much more examples in earth sciences where applying the SOC concept may be fruitful. After introducing the reader into the basics of fractals, chaos and SOC, the book presents established and new applications of SOC in earth sciences, namely earthquakes, forest fires, landslides and drainage networks.

How Nature Works

How Nature Works
Author: Per Bak
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2013-11-11
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1475754264

Self-organized criticality, the spontaneous development of systems to a critical state, is the first general theory of complex systems with a firm mathematical basis. This theory describes how many seemingly desperate aspects of the world, from stock market crashes to mass extinctions, avalanches to solar flares, all share a set of simple, easily described properties. "...a'must read'...Bak writes with such ease and lucidity, and his ideas are so intriguing...essential reading for those interested in complex systems...it will reward a sufficiently skeptical reader." -NATURE "...presents the theory (self-organized criticality) in a form easily absorbed by the non-mathematically inclined reader." -BOSTON BOOK REVIEW "I picture Bak as a kind of scientific musketeer; flamboyant, touchy, full of swagger and ready to join every fray... His book is written with panache. The style is brisk, the content stimulating. I recommend it as a bracing experience." -NEW SCIENTIST

Self-Organized Criticality in Earth Systems

Self-Organized Criticality in Earth Systems
Author: Stefan Hergarten
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3662043904

Self-organized criticality (SOC) has become a magic word in various scientific disciplines; it provides a framework for understanding complexity and scale invariance in systems showing irregular fluctuations. In the first 10 years after Per Bak and his co-workers presented their seminal idea, more than 2000 papers on this topic appeared. Seismology has been a field in earth sciences where the SOC concept has already deepened the understanding, but there seem to be much more examples in earth sciences where applying the SOC concept may be fruitful. After introducing the reader into the basics of fractals, chaos and SOC, the book presents established and new applications of SOC in earth sciences, namely earthquakes, forest fires, landslides and drainage networks.

Self-Organized Criticality in Astrophysics

Self-Organized Criticality in Astrophysics
Author: Markus Aschwanden
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2011-01-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3642150012

Markus Aschwanden introduces the concept of self-organized criticality (SOC) and shows that due to its universality and ubiquity it is a law of nature for which he derives the theoretical framework and specific physical models in this book. He begins by providing an overview of the many diverse phenomena in nature which may be attributed to SOC behaviour. The author then introduces the classic lattice-based SOC models that may be explored using numerical computer simulations. These simulations require an in-depth knowledge of a wide range of mathematical techniques which the author introduces and describes in subsequent chapters. These include the statistics of random processes, time series analysis, time scale distributions, and waiting time distributions. Such mathematical techniques are needed to model and understand the power-law-like occurrence frequency distributions of SOC phenomena. Finally, the author discusses fractal geometry and scaling laws before looking at a range of physical SOC models which may be applicable in various aspects of astrophysics. Problems, solutions and a glossary will enhance the pedagogical usefulness of the book. SOC has been receiving growing attention in the astrophysical and solar physics community. This book will be welcomed by students and researchers studying complex critical phenomena.

Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences

Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences
Author: Didier Sornette
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 445
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 366204174X

A modern up-to-date introduction for readers outside statistical physics. It puts emphasis on a clear understanding of concepts and methods and provides the tools that can be of immediate use in applications.

Multiscale Coupling of Sun-Earth Processes

Multiscale Coupling of Sun-Earth Processes
Author: A.T.Y. Lui
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2005-07-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0444518819

Full text e-book available as part of the Elsevier ScienceDirect Earth and Planetary Sciences subject collection.

Rain Formation in Warm Clouds

Rain Formation in Warm Clouds
Author: A. M. Selvam
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 109
Release: 2015-02-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319132695

This book aims to promote the understanding of some of the basic mathematical and scientific issues in the subjects relating to climate dynamics, chaos and quantum mechanics. It is based on substantial research work in atmospheric science carried out over twenty years. Atmospheric flows exhibit self similar fractal fluctuations, a signature of long-range correlations on all space-time scales. Realistic simulation and prediction of atmospheric flows requires the incorporation of the physics of observed fractal fluctuation characteristics in traditional meteorological theory. A general systems theory model for fractal space-time fluctuations in turbulent atmospheric flows is presented and applied to the formation of rain in warm clouds. This model gives scale-free universal governing equations for cloud growth processes. The model predicted cloud parameters are in agreement with reported observations, in particular, the cloud drop-size distribution. Rain formation can occur in warm clouds within 30 minutes as observed in practice under favourable conditions of moisture supply in the environment. Traditional cloud physical concepts for rain development requires over an hour for a full-sized raindrop to form. The book provides background reading for postgraduate students of Meteorology, Atmospheric Sciences/Physics, Environmental Sciences, and scientists working in the field of the topic of the book as well as the multidisciplinary field of Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos.

Self-Organised Criticality

Self-Organised Criticality
Author: Gunnar Pruessner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 517
Release: 2012-08-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0521853354

An overview of results and methods, written for graduates and researchers in physics, mathematics, biology, sociology, finance, medicine and engineering.

Dynamics of Multiscale Earth Systems

Dynamics of Multiscale Earth Systems
Author: Horst J. Neugebauer
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2008-01-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3540452567

In many aspects science becomes conducted nowadays through technology and preferential criteria of economy. Thus investigation and knowledge is evidently linked to a speci?c purpose. Especially Earth science is confronted with two major human perspectives concerning our natural environment:sustainability of resources and assessment of risks. Both aspects are expressing urgent needs of the living society, but in the same way those needs are addressing a long lasting fundamental challenge which has so far not been met. Following on the patterns of economy and technology, the key is presumed to be found through a devel- mentoffeasibleconceptsforamanagement ofbothournaturalenvironmentand in one or the other way the realm of life. Although new techniques for obser- tion and analysis led to an increase of rather speci?c knowledge about particular phenomena, yet we fail now even more frequently to avoid unforeseen impli- tions and sudden changes of a situation. Obviously the improved technological tools and the assigned expectations on a management of nature still exceed our traditional scienti?c experience and accumulated competence. Earth- and Life- Sciences are nowadays exceedingly faced with the puzzling nature of an almost boundless network of relations, i. e. , the complexity of phenomena with respect to their variability. The disciplinary notations and their particular approaches arethusnolongeraccountingsu?cientlyfortherecordedcontextofphenomena, for their permanent variability and their unpredictable implications. The large environmental changes of glacial climatic cycles, for instance, demonstrate this complexity of such a typical phenomenology.

Fractal Behaviour of the Earth System

Fractal Behaviour of the Earth System
Author: V.P. Dimri
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2005-12-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3540265368

It is with pleasure that I write the foreword to this excellent book. A wide range of observations in geology and solid-earth geophysics can be - plained in terms of fractal distributions. In this volume a collection of - pers considers the fractal behavior of the Earth's continental crust. The book begins with an excellent introductory chapter by the editor Dr. V.P. Dimri. Surface gravity anomalies are known to exhibit power-law spectral behavior under a wide range of conditions and scales. This is self-affine fractal behavior. Explanations of this behavior remain controversial. In chapter 2 V.P. Dimri and R.P. Srivastava model this behavior using Voronoi tessellations. Another approach to understanding the structure of the continental crust is to use electromagnetic induction experiments. Again the results often exhibit power law spectral behavior. In chapter 3 K. Bahr uses a fractal based random resister network model to explain the observations. Other examples of power-law spectral observations come from a wide range of well logs using various logging tools. In chapter 4 M. Fedi, D. Fiore, and M. La Manna utilize multifractal models to explain the behavior of well logs from the main KTB borehole in Germany. In chapter 5 V.V. Surkov and H. Tanaka model the electrokinetic currents that may be as- ciated with seismic electric signals using a fractal porous media. In chapter 6 M. Pervukhina, Y. Kuwahara, and H. Ito use fractal n- works to correlate the elastic and electrical properties of porous media.