HR: 11:20h
AN: U11C-02 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: Temporal and Spatial Scaling in the Earth Sciences
AU: * Malamud, B D
EM: bruce@malamud.com
AF: Environmental Monitoring and Modeling Research Group, Department of Geography, King's College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS United Kingdom
AB: The {\it AGU Focus Group on Nonlinear Geophysics} began in 1998, focusing on the general area of nonlinear and complex geophysical systems, with an emphasis on developing the mathematical, theoretical, numerical, experimental and observational tools to understand and simulate the dynamics of these systems. Nonlinear geophysics is fundamentally the application of nonlinear and/or stochastic partial or total differential equations to geophysical problems. Some key concepts and philosophies related to {\it Nonlinear Geophysics} include fractals, multifractals, chaos, nonlinear waves, solitons, turbulence, cascades and vortex dynamics, scaling, critical phenomena and nucleation, time series, and self-organizing systems. Scaling in both time and space is an underlying attribute of many of these concepts, and is included in a majority of talks presented by the general {\it Nonlinear Geophysics} community at AGU. The purpose of this one-hour union tutorial will be to introduce students and experienced researchers alike (particularly those outside of the general area of nonlinear geophysics) to some of the basic concepts, techniques and examples surrounding temporal and spatial scaling in the Earth Sciences. As many are familiar with the idea of spatial scaling in the Earth Sciences (e.g., the concepts of fractals and self-similarity that approximately the same pattern repeats itself at many different scales in nature), ideas of spatial scaling will be briefly introduced, with the majority of the talk concentrating on temporal scaling. This tutorial will include 40' `lecture' + 15' for questions/comments. Key terms will be introduced and defined (e.g. self-affine, persistence), some of the major techniques used will be briefly described (e.g. Hurst, Fourier-Analysis, Semivariograms, Wavelets), and throughout, examples and applications to the Earth Sciences will be used. Concepts and techniques will be presented from an intuitive perspective, without the use of extensive mathematics. A reference list for further reading will be available and a power-point version of this presentation will be available via the {\it AGU Nonlinear Geophysics} website. Finally, a secondary purpose of this tutorial will be to highlight major advances made in the general area of {\it Nonlinear Geophysics} and to summarize, from a non-mathematical perspective, the major focus and highlights of related sessions at this conference. A prepared handout will be available with this information.
DE: 3200 MATHEMATICAL GEOPHYSICS (New field)
DE: 3210 Modeling
DE: 3220 Nonlinear dynamics
DE: 3230 Numerical solutions
DE: 3250 Fractals and multifractals
SC: U
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting