Ole Peters and J. David Neelin
Nature Physics, 2, June, 2006.
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Abstract. (Submitted)
Critical phenomena near continuous phase transitions are typically observed on the scale of
wavelengths of visible light. 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 tuningparameter
lead to criticality. While numerically the corresponding phase transitions have
been studied, we characterise for the first time a physical system believed to display SOC
in terms of its underlying phase transition. In meteorology the term quasi-equilibrium (QE)
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, is associated with the critical point of a continuous phase transition and
is thus an instance of SOC.
Citation. Peters, O. and J. D. Neelin, 2006: Critical phenomena in atmospheric precipitation. Nature Physics, 2, 393-396, doi:10.1038/nphys314.