2006/05/28 by Ole Peters, J. David Neelin · 7 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Climate variability and models #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis #Ecosystem dynamics and resilience #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nphys314
published as Nature Physics 2, 393-396 (June 2006) · 5 pages, 3 figures
openalex publication_date 2006/05/28 · arxiv created 2006/06/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
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.