ALBERT

Description: We show evidence for mirror mode structures at comet Giacobini-Zinner. These are plasma structures with alternating high ß and low ß regions driven unstable when ß /ß 〉 1+ 1/. These structures are detected in a region just adjacent to the magnetic tail and have scale sizes of ≈ 12 H2O group ion cyclotron radii. Calculations are presented to show that mirror mode instability can occur due to the perpendicular pressure associated with H2O+ cometary pickup ions in the region of mirror mode observation. Adjacent regions (in the magnetic tail and further in the sheath) are found to be stable to the mirror mode. Plasma waves are detected in relation with the mirror mode structures. Low frequency 56 to 100 Hz waves are present in the high beta portions, and high frequency, 311 Hz to 10 kHz, waves are present in low beta regions. These may be electromagnetic lion roar waves and electrostatic festoon-shaped waves, respectively, in analogy to plasma waves detected in the Earth's magnetosheath.

Description: A numerical method for detection of unstable periodic orbits on attractors of nonlinear models is proposed.  The method requires similar techniques to data assimilation.  This fact facilitates its implementation for geophysical models.  This method was used to find numerically several low-period orbits for the barotropic ocean model in a square.  Some numerical particularities of application of this method are discussed. Knowledge of periodic orbits of the model helps to explain some of these features like bimodality of probability density functions (PDF) of principal parameters.  These PDFs have been reconstructed as weighted averages of periodic orbits with weights proportional to the period of the orbit and inversely proportional to the sum of positive Lyapunov exponents. The fraction of time spent in the vicinity of each periodic orbit has been compared with its instability characteristics. The relationship between these values shows the 93% correlation.  The attractor dimension of the model has also been approximated as a weighted average of local attractor dimensions in vicinities of periodic orbits.

Description: The discrete periodic inverse scattering transform (DPIST) has been shown to provide the salient features of nonlinear Fourier analysis for surface shallow water waves whose dynamics are governed by the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation - (1) linear superposition of components with power spectra that are invariants of the motion of nonlinear dispersive waves and (2) nonlinear filtering. As it is well known that internal gravity waves also approximately satisfy the KdV equation in shallow stratified layers, this paper investigates the degree to which DPIST provides a useful nonlinear spectral analysis of internal waves by application to simulations and wave tank experiments of internal wave propagation from localized dense disturbances. It is found that DPIST analysis is sensitive to the quantity λ = (r/6s) * (ε/μ2), where the first factor depends parametrically on the Richardson number and the background shear and density profiles and the second factor is the Ursell number-the ratio of the dimensionless wave amplitude to the dimensionless squared wavenumber. Each separate wave component of the decomposition of the initial disturbance can have a different value, and thus there is usually just one component which is an invariant of the motion found by DPIST analysis. However, as the physical applications, e.g. accidental toxic gas releases, are usually concerned with the propagation of the longest wavenumber disturbance, this is still useful information. In cases where only long, monochromatic solitary waves are triggered or selected by the waveguide, the entire DPIST spectral analysis is useful.

Description: In this paper we establish links between turbulence dissipation and wave-particle interactions in the solar corona and wind. Based on quasilinear theory, a set of anisotropic, multi-component fluid equations is derived, which describe the wave-particle interactions of ions with Alfvén waves and ion-cyclotron waves or magnetosonic waves propagating along the mean magnetic field. The associated equations for the wave spectrum and the heating and acceleration of the ions are derived. In fast solar wind streams heavy ions have about equal thermal speeds as the protons and flow faster than them. In order to explain the observed relations, Tj / Tp ≈ mj /mp and Uj Up ≈ VA, a numerical fluid-type model is developed, which takes into account the relevant wave-particle interactions. It is shown that left- and right-handed polarized waves propagating away from the Sun parallel to the interplanetary magnetic field can resonantly heat and accelerate minor ions preferentially with respect to the protons in close agreement with the measured characteristics of ion velocity distributions. Finally, some results from a simple analytical model are discussed.

Description: Based on quasilinear theory, a closure scheme for anisotropic multi-component fluid equations is developed for the wave-particle interactions of ions with electromagnetic Alfvén and ion-cyclotron waves propagating along the mean magnetic field. Acceleration and heating rates are calculated. They may be used in the multi-fluid momentum and energy equations as anomalous transport terms. The corresponding evolution equation for the average wave spectrum is established, and the effective growth/damping rate for the spectrum is calculated. Given a simple power-law spectrum, an anomalous collision frequency can be derived which depends on the slope and average intensity of the spectrum, and on the gyrofrequency and the differential motion (with respect to the wave frame) of the actual ion species considered. The wave-particle interaction terms attain simple forms resembling the ones for collisional friction and temperature anisotropy relaxation (due to pitch angle scattering) with collision rates that are proportional to the gyrofrequency but diminished substantially by the relative wave energy or the fluctuation level with respect the background field. In addition, a set of quasilinear diffusion equations is derived for the reduced (with respect to the perpendicular velocity component) velocity distribution functions (VDFs), as they occur in the wave dispersion equation and the related dielectric function for parallel propagation. These reduced VDFs allow one to describe adequately the most prominent observed features, such as an ion beam and temperature anisotropy, in association with the resonant interactions of the particles with the waves on a kinetic level, yet have the advantage of being only dependent upon the parallel velocity component.

Description: Ocean surface, grazing-angle radar backscatter data from two separate experiments, one of which provided coincident time series of measured surface winds, were found to exhibit signatures of deterministic chaos. Evidence is presented that the lowest dimensional underlying dynamical system responsible for the radar backscatter chaos is that which governs the surface wind turbulence. Block-averaging time was found to be an important parameter for determining the degree of determinism in the data as measured by the correlation dimension, and by the performance of an artificial neural network in retrieving wind and stress from the radar returns, and in radar detection of an ocean internal wave. The correlation dimensions are lowered and the performance of the deterministic retrieval and detection algorithms are improved by averaging out the higher dimensional surface wave variability in the radar returns.

Description: Application of the Brown-Samelson theorem, which shows that particle motion is integrable in a class of vorticity-conserving, two-dimensional incompressible flows, is extended here to a class of explicit time dependent dynamically balanced flows in multilayered systems. Particle motion for nonsteady two-dimensional flows with discontinuities in the vorticity or potential vorticity fields (modon solutions) is shown to be integrable. An example of a two-layer modon solution constrained by observations of a Gulf Stream ring system is discussed.

Description: A nonlinear nested model for mudslide-induced tsunamis is proposed in which three phases of the life of the wave, i.e. the generation, far-field propagation and costal run-up are described by means of different mathematical models, that are coupled through appropriate matching procedures. The generation and run-up dynamics are simulated through a nonlinear shallow-water model with movable lateral boundaries: in the generation region two active layers are present, the lower one describing the slide descending on a sloping topography. For the intermediate phase, representing wave propagation far from the generation region, the hydrostatic assumption is not assumed as appropriate in general and, therefore, a nonlinear model allowing for weak phase dispersion, namely a Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation, is used. This choice is made in order to assess the relevance of dispersive features such as solitary waves and dispersive tails. It is shown that in some realistic circumstances dispersive mudslide-induced tsunami waves can be produced over relatively short, distances. In such cases the use of a hydrostatic model throughout the whole tsunami history turns out to give erroneous results. In particular, when solitary waves are generated during the tsunami propagation in the open sea, the resulting run-up process yields peculiar wave forms leading to amplified coastal inundations with respect to a mere hydrostatic context.

Description: The theory of scale similarity and breakdown coefficients is applied here to intermittent rainfall data consisting of time series and spatial rain fields. The probability distributions (pdf) of the logarithm of the breakdown coefficients are the principal descriptor used. Rain fields are distinguished as being either multiscaling or multiaffine depending on whether the pdfs of breakdown coefficients are scale similar or scale dependent, respectively. Parameter  estimation techniques are developed which are applicable to both multiscaling and multiaffine fields. The scale parameter (width), σ, of the pdfs of the log-breakdown coefficients is a measure of the intermittency of a field. For multiaffine fields, this scale parameter is found to increase with scale in a power-law fashion consistent with a bounded-cascade picture of rainfall modelling. The resulting power-law exponent, H, is indicative of the smoothness of the field. Some details of breakdown coefficient analysis are addressed and a theoretical link between this analysis and moment scaling analysis is also presented. Breakdown coefficient properties of cascades are also investigated in the context of parameter estimation for modelling purposes.

Description: By using a Hamiltonian method, non-linear three-wave interaction in a class of systems related to the shallow water model is considered and a general coupling coefficient is presented. In the special case where two inertial waves and one Rossby wave interact resonantly, it is found that even a very small shear of the background velocity can be important in the interaction process. The stability of the system is considered by using a pseudo-energy method. Some implications for the dynamics of atmospheric flows are pointed out.

Description: The paper concerns the temporal evolution of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability of two superimposed fluids in a vertical channel. At large times the instability results in the formation of a wide nearly-steady bubble of the lighter fluid rising through the channel, and thin long unsteady jets of the heavier fluid flowing down the channel walls. The jet flow appears to be tractable asymptotically by the method of matched expansions. The solution has been obtained with the planar tips of jets characterized by the jump of the interface slope.

Description: When a pollutant is released into the ocean or atmosphere under turbulent conditions, even a steady release is captured by large eddies resulting in localized patches of high concentration of the pollutant. If such a cloud of pollutant subsequently enters a stable stratification-either a pycnocline or thermocline-then internal waves are excited. Since large solitary internal waves have a recirculating core, pollutants may be trapped in the sclitary wave, and advected large distances through the waveguide provided by the stratification. This paper addresses the mechanisms, through computer and physical simulation, by which a localized release of a dense pollutant results in solitary waves that trap the pollutant or disperse the pollutant faster than in the absence of the waves.

Description: An analysis of time series of monthly mean temperatures ranging from 1895 to 1989 is performed through application of Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) to data of several places in the USA. A common dynamics in the reconstructed spaces is obtained, with the evidence of a non-trivial and structured coupling of two Brownian motions, resembling the so-called Lévy flights. The idea that these two correlated functions are related to the zonal and eddy components of the atmospheric motions is suggested.

Description: A particle-in-cell ansatz for solving the Euler equations in a rotating frame is described. The approach is ideally suited for "layered" models of flows with sharp density and velocity fronts. The material and Coriolis accelerations in the Euler equations are solved at each particle while the gradient accelerations are evaluated on a grid and interpolated at each time step to the particles. The height of each particle is fixed and, depending on the application may be constant for all particles or may vary from particle to particle. The approach is used here to predict the evolution of a lens in a layered model with lower layer outcropping. The integral invariant of the volume is conserved exactly and total energy and total angular momentum are conserved to within 3% throughout a 30 day simulation. Exceptional resolution of the density and velocity fronts is maintained during the simulation without imposing any numerical viscosity. the model also reproduces essential characteristics of analytic solutions to a parabolic shaped lens. This algorithm is well suited to parallel implementation; all of the calculations reported here were done on an IBM SP2. Performance speedup and execution time as a function of the number of processors is given.

Description: The intertmittent nature of turbulence within solar wind plasma has been demonstrated by several studies of spacecraft data. Using magnetic field data taken in high speed flows at high heliographic latitudes by the Ulysses probe, the character of fluctuations within the inertia] range is discussed. Structure functions are used extensively. A simple consideration of errors associated with calculations of high moment structure functions is shown to be useful as a practical estimate of the reliability of such calculations. For data sets of around 300 000 points, structure functions of moments above 5 are rarely reliable on the basis of this test, highlighting the importance of considering uncertainties in such calculations. When unreliable results are excluded, it is shown that inertial range polar fluctuations are well described by a multifractal model of turbulent energy transfer. Detailed consideration of the scaling of high order structure functions suggests energy transfer consistent with a "Kolmogorov" cascade.

Description: Large hierarchically organized sets of elements (simulating asperities in a fault) are loaded to the point of complete failure. The fracture thresholds of individual elements are stochastically distributed, and the hierarchical structure for load-transfer is of the fractal-tree type. During the breakdown process there occur bursts (earthquakes) of several elements breaking simultaneously at a given load. Using Monte Carlo simulations we compute the frequency of bursts versus their size. This shows a gross power-law behaviour superimposed by a wavy pattern closely related to the coordination number of the fractal tree used for the load-transfer structure.

Description: The complete mathematical and physical characterization of nonlinear water wave dynamics has been an important goal since the fundamental partial differential equations were discovered by Euler over 200 years ago. Here I study a subset of the full solutions by considering the irrotational, unidirectional multiscale expansion of these equations in shallow-water. I seek to integrate the first higher-order wave equation, beyond the order of the Korteweg- deVries equation, using the inverse scattering transform. While I am unable to integrate this equation directly, I am instead able to integrate an analogous equation in a closely related hierarchy. This new integrable wave equation is tested for physical validity by comparing its linear dispersion relation and solitary wave solution with those of the full water wave equations and with laboratory data. The comparison is remarkably close and thus supports the physical applicability of the new equation. These results are surprising because the inverse scattering transform, long thought to be useful for solving only very special, low-order nonlinear wave equations, can now be thought of as a useful tool for approximately integrating a wide variety of physical systems to higher order. I give a simple scenario for adapting these results to the nonlinear Fourier analysis of experimentally measured wave trains.

Description: We present a geometric analysis of a quasi-static single degree of freedom elastic slider with a state and rate dependent friction law. In particular, we examine and characterize the regime of chaotic motions displayed by the Dieterich-Ruina model. We do so by numerically reducing the chaotic attractors to a family of unimodal maps and discuss why this suggests complex behaviour in the dynamical system.

Description: We study the relation between changes in the Eulerian topology of a two dimensional flow and the mixing of fluid particles between qualitatively different regions of the flow. In general time dependent flows, streamlines and particle paths are unrelated. However, for many mesoscale oceanographic features such as detaching rings and meandering jets, the rate at which the Euierian structures evolve is considerably slower than typical advection speeds of Lagrangian tracers. In this note we show that for two-dimensional, adiabatic fluid flows there is a direct relationship between observable changes in the topology of the Eulerian field and the rate of transport of fluid particles. We show that a certain class of flows is amenable to adiabatic or near adiabatic analysis, and, as an example, we use our results to study the chaotic mixing in the Dutkiewicz and Paldor (1994) kinematic model of the interaction of a meandering barotropic jet with a strong eddy.

Description: Nonlinear elastic response in rock is established as a robust and representative characteristic rock rather than a curiosity. We show measurements of this behaviour from a variety of experiments on rock taken over many orders of magnitude in strain and frequency. The evidence leads to a pattern of unifying behaviour in rock: (1) Nonlinear response in rock is ubiquitous. (2) The response takes place over a large frequency interval (dc to 105 kHz at least). (3) The response not only occurs, as is commonly appreciated, large strains but also at small strains where this behaviour and the manifestations of this behaviour are commonly disregarded.

Description: In this paper, we present evidence that intermittency of Eulerian and Lagrangian turbulence of ocean temperature and plankton fields is multifractal and furthermore can be analysed with the help of universal multifractals. We analyse time series of temperature and in vivo fluorescence taken from a drifter in the mixed coastal waters of the eastern English Channel. Two analysis techniques are used to compute the fundamental universal multifiractal parameters, which describe all the statistics of the turbulent fluctuations: the analysis of the scale invariant structure function exponent ζ(q) and the Double Trace Moment technique. At small scales, we do not detect any significant difference between the universal multifiractal behavior of temperature and fluorescence in an Eulerian framework. This supports the hypothesis that the latter is passively advected with the flow as the former. On the one hand, we show that large scale measurements are Lagrangian and indeed we obtain for temperature fluctuations a ω2 power spectrum corresponding to the theoretical scaling of a Lagrangian passive scalar. Furthermore, we show that Lagrangian temperature fluctuations are multiscaling and intermittent. On the other hand, the flatter slope at large scales of the fluorescence power spectrum points out that the plankton is at these scales a "biologically active" scalar.

Description: We study theoretically the physical origin of the proposed discrete scale invariance of earthquake processes, at the origin of the universal log-periodic corrections to scaling, recently discovered in regional seismic activity (Sornette and Sammis (1995)). The discrete scaling symmetries which may be present at smaller scales are shown to be robust on a global scale with respect to disorder. Furthermore, a single complex exponent is sufficient in practice to capture the essential properties of the leading correction to scaling, whose real part may be renormalized by disorder, and thus be specific to the system. We then propose a new mechanism for discrete scale invariance, based on the interplay between dynamics and disorder. The existence of non-linear corrections to the renormalization group flow implies that an earthquake is not an isolated "critical point", but is accompanied by an embedded set of "critical points", its foreshocks and any subsequent shocks for which it may be a foreshock.

Description: The ESA/NASA Cluster mission has four identical satellites and is due for launch at the end of 1995. It will provide a unique opportunity to study medium scale processes in the region from inside the magnetopause to the solar wind. The polar orbit will allow measurements in the cusp and along auroral field lines, both regions where turbulence is to be expected. Five of the eleven instruments on each payload form the Wave Experiment Consortium (WEC); EFW, STAFF, VMISPER, WBD and DWP. The WEC is capable of a wide variety of wave and turbulence measurements. This paper outlines these capabilities and describes the form of the data which will be collected. The paper gives a discussion of how the WEC data may be analysed so as to give an insight into the non-linear processes which occur in these regions of the space plasmas. There are many ways in which a plasma may be considered to behave in a non-linear manner. We concentrate on how the spatio-temporal turbulence in the plasma may be investigated so as to yield the energy spectrum with respect to both the frequency and wave number.

Description: We examine the time series of cosmic ray (CR) intensity recorded by two neutron monitors (NMs) at medium latitudes for scaling properties on time scales shorter than the diurnal variation. Scaling of the data with 10 sec as well as I min resolution is shown to be complicated, indicating that there is probably not a unique process governing the CR fluctuations in the whole interval studied. For T 〈 20 min the general characteristics are similar to those of white noise. Above 40-60 min the scaling characteristics are dependent on the level of interplanetary disturbance. This is consistent with the concept of scattering CRs by inhomogeneities of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). With increasing interplanetary turbulence the dimensionality of the CR time series decreases. The region of stable scaling is, however, narrow, only up to 6 hours. Multifractality signatures in the region 1-6 hours are similar to those in the IMF, however the deviations from monofractality are relatively small.

Description: The propagation of large- amplitude internal waves in the ocean is studied here for the case when the nonlinear effects are of cubic order, leading to the modified Korteweg - de Vries equation. The coefficients of this equation are calculated analytically for several models of the density stratification. It is shown that the coefficient of the cubic nonlinear term may have either sign (previously only cases of a negative cubic nonlinearity were known). Cubic nonlinear effects are more important for the high modes of the internal waves. The nonlinear evolution of long periodic (sine) waves is simulated for a three-layer model of the density stratification. The sign of the cubic nonlinear term influences the character of the solitary wave generation. It is shown that the solitary waves of both polarities can appear for either sign of the cubic nonlinear term; if it is positive the solitary waves have a zero pedestal, and if it is negative the solitary waves are generated on the crest and the trough of the long wave. The case of a localised impulsive initial disturbance is also simulated. Here, if the cubic nonlinear term is negative, there is no solitary wave generation at large times, but if it is positive solitary waves appear as the asymptotic solution of the nonlinear wave evolution.

Description: The recent availability of complete three dimensional samples of galaxies and clusters permits a direct study of their spatial properties. We present a brief review of galaxy correlations based on the methods modern statistical Physics. These methods which able to identify self-similar and non-analytical prop ties, allow us to test the usual homogeneity assumption of luminous matter distribution. We conclude that both the three dimensional prop ties, and the angular log N - log S relation, point out the fact that the distribution of galaxies and clusters fractal with D ≈ 2 up to the deepest scale probed luminous matter (≈≥ 1000h-1 Mpc). This result has important implications for the theoretical framework that should be adopted.

Description: Recent field observations of the statistical distribution of turbidite and debris flow deposits are discussed. In some cases one finds a good fit over 1.5-2 orders of magnitude to the scaling law N(h) α h-B, where N(h) is the number of layers thicker than h. Observations show that the scaling exponent B varies widely from deposit to deposit, ranging from about 1/2 to 2. Moreover, one case is characterized by a sharp crossover in which B increases by a factor of two as h increases past a critical thickness. We propose that the variations in B, either regional or within the same deposit, are indicative of the geometry of the sedimentary basin and the rheological properties of the original gravity-driven flow. The origin of the power-law distribution remains an open question.

Description: The transfer of a passive tracer in inhomogeneous turbulent flow is investigated. Starting from Lumley's constitutive equation, we derived an expression for the ratio between the effective eddy diffusivity K and eddy diffusivity K as a function of three length scales characterizing the local turbulence structure, flux variations and turbulence inhomogeneities. The theoretical predictions for the one-dimensional case of inhomogeneous symmetric turbulence were validated through a comparison with the numerical results of a Lagrangian particle model simulating a wind tunnel experiment of dispersion in the lee of an idealized two-dimensional hill. A qualitative agreement is reached between the theoretical evaluation of K and the value obtained from the numerical simulation.

Description: We have examined the non-equilibrium effects of core-cooling and time-dependent internal-heating on the thermal evolution of the Earth's mantle and on mantle flush events caused by the two major phase transitions. Both two- and three-dimensional models have been employed. The mantle viscosity responds to the secular cooling through changes in the averaged temperature field. A viscosity which decreases algebraically with the average temperature has been considered. The time-dependent internal-heating is prescribed to decrease exponentially with a single decay time. We have studied the thermal histories with initial Rayleigh numbers between 2 x 107 and 108 . Flush events, driven by the non-equilibrium forcings, are much more dramatic than those produced by the equilibrium boundary conditions and constant internal heating. Multiple flush events are found under non-equilibrium conditions in which there is very little internal heating or very fast decay rates of internal-heating. Otherwise, the flush events take place in a relatively continuous fashion. Prior to massive flush events small-scale percolative structures appear in the 3D temperature fields. Time-dependent signatures, such as the surface heat flux, also exhibits high frequency oscillatory patterns prior to massive flush events. These two observations suggest that the flush event may be a self-organized critical phenomenon. The Nusselt number as a function of the time-varying Ra does not follow the Nusselt vs. Rayleigh number power-law relationship based on equilibrium (constant temperature) boundary conditions. Instead Nu(t) may vary non-monotonically with time because of the mantle flush events. Convective processes in the mantle operate quite differently under non-equilibrium conditions from its behaviour under the usual equilibrium situations.

Description: The work considers three-dimensional crescent-shaped patterns often seen on water surface in natural basins and observed in wave tank experiments. The most common of these 'horse-shoe-like' patterns appear to be sporadic, i.e., emerging and disappearing spontaneously even under steady wind conditions. The paper suggests a qualitative model of these structures aimed at explaining their sporadic nature, physical mechanisms of their selection and their specific asymmetric form. First, the phenomenon of sporadic horse-shoe patterns is studied numerically using the novel algorithm of water waves simulation recently developed by the authors (Annenkov and Shrira, 1999). The simulations show that a steep gravity wave embedded into widespectrum primordial noise and subjected to small nonconservative effects typically follows the simple evolution scenario: most of the time the system can be considered as consisting of a basic wave and a single pair of oblique satellites, although the choice of this pair tends to be different at different instants. Despite the effective low-dimensionality of the multimodal system dynamics at relatively sho ' rt time spans, the role of small satellites is important: in particular, they enlarge the maxima of the developed satellites. The presence of Benjamin-Feir satellites appears to be of no qualitative importance at the timescales under consideration. The selection mechanism has been linked to the quartic resonant interactions among the oblique satellites lying in the domain of five-wave (McLean's class II) instability of the basic wave: the satellites tend to push each other out of the resonance zone due to the frequency shifts caused by the quartic interactions. Since the instability domain is narrow (of order of cube of the basic wave steepness), eventually in a generic situation only a single pair survives and attains considerable amplitude. The specific front asymmetry is found to result from the interplay of quartic and quintet interactions and non-conservative effects: the growing and grown satellites have a specific value of phase with respect to the basic wave that corresponds to downwind orientation of the convex sides of wave fronts. As soon as the phase relation is violated, the satellite's amplitude quickly decreases down to the noise level.

Description: A long AE index time series is used as a crucial magnetospheric quantity in order to study the underlying dynainics. For this purpose we utilize methods of nonlinear and chaotic analysis of time series. Two basic components of this analysis are the reconstruction of the experimental tiine series state space trajectory of the underlying process and the statistical testing of an null hypothesis. The null hypothesis against which the experimental time series are tested is that the observed AE index signal is generated by a linear stochastic signal possibly perturbed by a static nonlinear distortion. As dis ' ' ating statistics we use geometrical characteristics of the reconstructed state space (Part I, which is the work of this paper) and dynamical characteristics (Part II, which is the work a separate paper), and "nonlinear" surrogate data, generated by two different techniques which can mimic the original (AE index) signal. lie null hypothesis is tested for geometrical characteristics which are the dimension of the reconstructed trajectory and some new geometrical parameters introduced in this work for the efficient discrimination between the nonlinear stochastic surrogate data and the AE index. Finally, the estimated geometric characteristics of the magnetospheric AE index present new evidence about the nonlinear and low dimensional character of the underlying magnetospheric dynamics for the AE index.

Description: It is a common procedure in climate modelling to specify dynamical system components from an external source; a prominent example is the forcing of an atmospheric model with observed sea surface temperatures. In this paper, we examine the dynamics of such forced models using a simple prototype climate system. A particular fully coupled run of the model is designated the "true" solution, and an ensemble of perturbed initial states is generated by adding small errors to the "true" initial state. The perturbed ensemble is then integrated for the same period as the true solution, using both the fully-coupled model and a model in which the ocean is prescribed exactly from the true solution at every time step. Although the prescribed forcing is error-free, the forced-atmosphere ensemble is shown to converge to spurious solutions. Statistical tests show that neither the time-mean state nor the variability of the forced ensemble is consistent with the fully-coupled system. A stability analysis reveals the source of the inconsistency, and suggests that such behaviour may be a more general feature of models with prescribed subsystems. Possible implications for model validation and predictability are discussed.

Description: A simple phenomenological model for nonlinear interactions of gravity waves on the surface of deep water is developed. The Snl nonlinear interaction term in the kinetic equation for wave action is replaced by the nonlinear second-order diffusion-type operator. Analytical and numerical studies show that the new model gives a reasonably good description of a real situation, consuming three order of magnitude less computer time.

Description: The evolution of tracer "injected" into an equivalent barotropic eddy on the beta-plane is examined numerically. The eddy is governed by the standard quasigeostrophic equation, and the concentration of tracer is governed by the advection equation with diffusion. At the initial moment of time, the streamfunction and distribution of tracer are both radially or elliptically symmetric. After the first 10-30 days, a spirallike strip, where the gradient of concentration is large, develops in the tracer field, whereas the eddy remains smooth for a relatively long time. To put this conclusion in quantitative terms, a "tracer variability indicator" is introduced and shown to grow much faster than a similar characteristic of the potential vorticity field (notwithstanding the fact that the tracer concentration and PV satisfy the same governing equation). A simple explanation as to why the tracer is more affected by filamentation than PV is provided for eddies with small Burger number. It is demonstrated that the high-gradient strip develops, unless stopped by turbulent diffusion, into an inversion (non-monotonicity) of the tracer concentration field. Finally, the results of simulations are compared to the spiral patterns in the real-life eddies observed in the East Australian Current.

Description: In this paper we study Lagrangian transport in the near wake of the flow around an obstacle, which we take to be a cylinder. In this case, for the range of Reynolds numbers investigated, the flow is two-dimensional and time periodic. We use ideas and methods from transport theory in dynamical systems to describe and quantify transport in the near wake. We numerically solve the Navier-Stokes equations for the velocity field and apply these methods to the resulting numerical representation of the velocity field. We show that the method of lobe dynamics can be used in conjunction with computational fluid dynamics methods to give very detailed and quantitative information about Lagrangian transport. In particular, we show how the stable and unstable manifolds of certain saddle-type stagnation points on the cylinder, and one in the wake, can be used to divide the flow into three distinct regions, an upper wake, a lower wake, and a wake cavity. The significance of the division using stable and unstable manifolds lies in the fact that these invariant manifolds form a template on which the transport occurs. Using this, we compute fluxes from the upper and lower wakes into the wake cavity using the associated turnstile lobes. We also compute escape time distributions as well as compare transport properties for two different Reynolds numbers.

Description: A bond-percolation model based on the Bethe Lattice is presented. This model handles anisotropic and multiscale situations where, typically, the bond probability is non unique and depends on the sites it connects. The model is governed by a set of non-linear equations which are solved numerically. As a result, the structure of the network is obtained: strengths of the backbone, dead-end roads and finite clusters. Percolation thresholds and cluster sizes are also obtained. Application to fissured media is presented and random simulations of 3D distributions of fractures show the good accuracy of the model.

Description: Statistical properties of collisionless plasmas in the vicinity of the Earth's bow shock are investigated with the aim to characterize the intermittent behaviour of non- magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. The structure functions of the fluctuating magnetic field reveal an increasing departure from Gaussianity at small scales, which is similar to that observed in solar wind turbulence and is surprisingly little affected by the abrupt shock transition. While these results may be the signature of a multifractal process, a deeper inspection reveals caveats in such an interpretation. Several effects, including the anisotropy of the wavefield, the violation of the Taylor hypothesis and the occasional occurrence of coherent wave packets, strongly affect the higher order statistical properties. Most of the small differences observed between the up- and downstream sides of the shock can be ascribed to the occurrence of discrete whistler wavetrains, while the wavefield itself is much less intermittent. It is also shown how the finite length of the records prohibits a reliable estimation of structure functions beyond the fourth order. These results preclude an unambiguous identification of underlying models for intermittency.

Description: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images of the ocean yield a lot of information on the sea-state surface providing that the mapping process between the surface and the image is clearly defined. However it is well known that SAR images exhibit non-gaussian statistics and that the motion of the scatterers on the surface, while the image is being formed, may yield to nonlinearities. The detection and quantification of these nonlinearities are made possible by using Higher Order Spectra (HOS) methods and more specifically, bispectrum estimation. The development of the latter method allowed us to find phase relations between different parts of the image and to recognise their level of coupling, i.e. if and how waves of different wavelengths interacted nonlinearly. This information is quite important as the usual models assume strong nonlinearities when the waves are propagating in the azimuthal direction (i.e. along the satellite track) and almost no nonlinearities when propagating in the range direction. In this paper, the mapping of the ocean surface to the SAR image is reinterpreted and a specific model (i.e. a Second Order Volterra Model) is introduced. The nonlinearities are thus explained as either produced by a nonlinear system or due to waves propagating into selected directions (azimuth or range) and interacting during image formation. It is shown that quadratic nonlinearities occur for waves propagating near the range direction while for those travelling in the azimuthal direction the nonlinearities, when present, are mostly due to wave interactions but are almost completely removed by the filtering effect coming from the surface motion itself (azimuth cut-off). An inherent quadratic interaction filtering (azimuth high pass filter) is also present. But some other effects, apparently nonlinear, are not detected with the methods described here, meaning that either the usual relation developed for the Ocean-to-SAR transform is somewhat incomplete, although the mechanisms leading to its formulation seem to be correct, or that these nonlinearities cannot be detected in the classical bispectrum theory.

Description: Using a recently proposed technique for statistical analysis of non-gridded satellite altimeter data, regime of long equatorially-trapped baroclinic Rossby waves is studied. One-dimensional spatial and spatiotemporal autocorrelation functions of sea surface height (SSH) variations yield a broad spectrum of baroclinic Rossby waves and permit determination of their propagation speed. The 1-d wavenumber spectrum of zonal variations is given by a power-law k-2 on scales from about 103 km to 104 km. We demonstrate that the observed wave regime exhibits features of soliton turbulence developing in the long baroclinic Rossby waves. However, being limited to second statistical moments, the present analysis does not allow us to rule out a possibility of weak wave turbulence.

Description: The centre manifold approach is used to derive an approximate equation for nonlinear waves propagating in a sheared, stably stratified fluid layer. The evolution equation matches limiting forms derived by other methods, including the inviscid, long wave approximation leading to the Korteweg- deVries equation. The model given here allows large modulations of the height of the waveguide. This permits the crude modelling of shear layer instabilities at the upper material surface of the waveguide which excite solitary internal waves in the waveguide. An energy argument is used to support the existence of these waves.

Description: We investigate the flow between coaxial rotating disks in the situation where a strong axial vortex is present over a turbulent background. This is nonstationary and inhomogeneous as is common in most turbulent geophysical flows. We describe the s scale statistics using tools recently introduced for homogeneous turbulent flows. It seems that the cascade cess is preserved although modified by the large coherent structure.

Description: A one-dimensional form of the equation of motion with forcing and dissipation is formulated in the spectral domain and used to make long term integrations from which the spectral distribution of the kinetic energy is determined The forcing in the wave number domain is determined in advance and kept constant for the duration of the time integrations. The dissipation is proportional to the second derivative of the velocity. The applied equation is made non-dimensional by selecting a length scale from which the time scale and the velocity scale may be determined. The resulting equation contains no parameters apart from the forcing. The integrations use a large number of spectral components and no approximation is made with respect to the non-linear interaction among the spectral components. Starting from an initial state in which all the velocity components are set to zero the equation is integrated for a long time to see if it reaches a steady state. The spectral distribution of the kinetic energy is determined in the steady state, and it is found that the distribution, in agreement with observational studies, may be approximated by a power law of the form n-3 within certain wave number regions. The wave numbers for which the -3 power law applies is found between the region of maximum forcing and the dissipation range. The intensity of the maximum forcing is varied to see how the resulting steady state varies. In addition, the maximum number of spectral components is varied. However, the available computing power sets an upper limit to the number of components.

Description: During substorms the magnetic field configuration changes in time; stretching of the magnetosphere during growth phase is followed by its collapse after the onset of the expansion phase. In this study the ionospheric origin oxygen ion dynamics in a time-dependent magnetosphere is analyzed. An induction electric field of several mV/m due to the reconfigurating magnetic field determines the details of the ion extraction from the auroral topside ionosphere. Two regimes of motion are discernible; a regime in regions far from the equatorial plane where the magnetic moment is conserved and a regime near the equatorial plane, in which the motion produces magnetic moment jumps and oscillations. The time spent by the ion in the regions is determined by the initial characteristics of the ion and by the field transition features. Lyapunov characteristic exponents are calculated to estimate the sensitivity of the system to initial conditions. Their values are higher for orbits with chaotic segments compared with the orbits in the static magnetic field and depend on the amplitude of the induced electric field. It follows from the study that the region of chaos usually localized far beyond 10 RE in the plasma sheet is expected to approach closer to the Earth ( r = 6 - 7 RE) during substorm associated reconfigurations of the magnetosphere, due to the auroral ionospheric ions.

Description: We study a 2D quasi-static discrete crack anti-plane model of a tectonic plate with long range elastic forces and quenched disorder. The plate is driven at its border and the load is transferred to all elements through elastic forces. This model can be considered as belonging to the class of self-organized models which may exhibit spontaneous criticality, with four additional ingredients compared to sandpile models, namely quenched disorder, boundary driving, long range forces and fast time crack rules. In this "crack" model, as in the "dislocation" version previously studied, we find that the occurrence of repeated earthquakes organizes the activity on well-defined fault-like structures. In contrast with the "dislocation" model, after a transient, the time evolution becomes periodic with run-aways ending each cycle. This stems from the "crack" stress transfer rule preventing criticality to organize in favour of cyclic behaviour. For sufficiently large disorder and weak stress drop, these large events are preceded by a complex spacetime history of foreshock activity, characterized by a Gutenberg-Richter power law distribution with universal exponent B = 1±0.05. This is similar to a power law distribution of small nucleating droplets before the nucleation of the macroscopic phase in a first-order phase transition. For large disorder and large stress drop, and for certain specific initial disorder configurations, the stress field becomes frustrated in fast time: out-of-plane deformations (thrust and normal faulting) and/or a genuine dynamics must be introduced to resolve this frustration.

Description: Using a stochastic model, we simulate the process of dielectric breakdown in the atmosphere and calculate the fractal dimension of 3-dimensional lightning patterns. Finite-size effects have been studied. The projections of our patterns on vertical planes fit the experimental fractal dimension obtained from photographic analysis. This work is inspired by a previous work by A.A. Tsonis.

Description: The history of reversals of main geomagnetic field during last 160 My is analyzed as a sequence of events, presented as a point set on the time axis. Different techniques were applied including the method of boxcounting, dispersion counter-scaling, multifractal analysis and examination of attractor behaviour in multidimensional phase space. The existence of a crossover point at time interval 0.5-1.0 My was clearly identified, dividing the whole time range into two subranges with different scaling properties. The long-term subrange is characterized by monofractal dimension 0.88 and by an attractor, whose correlation dimension converges to 1.0, that provides evidence of a deterministic dynamical system in this subrange, similar to most existing dynamo models. In the short-term subrange the fractal dimension estimated by different methods varies from 0.47 to 0.88 and the dimensionality of the attractor is obtained to be about 3.7. These results are discussed in terms of non-linear superposition of processes in the Earth's geospheres.

Description: A goal of geophysical inversion is to identify all models which give an acceptable misfit between predicted and observed data. However, because of the complexity of Earth structure, the non-linearity of physical processes in the Earth, and the insufficiency of geophysical data, many geophysical inverse problems may have a large number of distinct, acceptable solutions. These problems may be characterized by a complicated surface for the misfit function in the solution parameter space. For exploring such a surface, direct inversion and simple random search methods are often inadequate. However, directed search methods such as the genetic algorithm can be configured to balance convergent and random processes to find large sets of solutions that span the acceptable regions of complicated misfit surfaces.

Description: Using Monte Carlo simulations of the process of breaking in arrays of elements with load-transfer rules, we have obtained the size- frequency relation of the avalanches occurring in 1- and 2-dimensional stochastic fracture models. The resulting power-law behaviour resembles the Gutenberg-Richter law for the relation between the size (liberated energy) of earthquakes and their number frequency. The value of the power law exponent is calculated as a function of the degree of stress dissipation present in the model. The degree of dissipation is implemented in a straightforward and simple way by assuming that only a fraction of the stress is transferred in each breaking event. The models are robust with respect to the degree of dissipation and we observe a consistent power-law behaviour for a broad range of dissipation values, both in ID and 2D. The value of the power-law exponent is similar to the phenomenological b- value (0.8 〈 b 〈 1.1) for intermediate magnitude earthquakes.

Description: The statistics of the stick-slip motion is studied in two experiments, where elasticity is distributed either on a surface or on a volume. The rough surface is realised by embedding steel spheres in an elastic substrate whereas the volume is constituted by several layers of rubber spheres. Both systems produce a complex dynamics characterized by power law with non-trivial exponents in the distribution of the amplitude of the slipping events and in the power spectra of the friction force time evolution. The dependence of the results on the system size is also studied.

Description: Recently constructed tomographic models of the lateral heterogeneity of elastic properties in the Earth's mantle are contrasted in terms of their implications concerning the extent to which the endothermic phase transformation at 660 km depth is influencing the radial style of mixing. Previously published whole mantle and split mantle tomographic reconstructions, SH8/WMI3 and SH8/U4L8 respectively, fit the seismic observations equally well but disagree on the extent to which radial mixing may be impeded across this depth horizon. We show that inferences from seismic tomographic images based on the application of diagnostic functions (global and regional variance spectra and the radial correlation function) lead to the conclusion that the mantle circulation is whole mantle in style if model SH8/WM13 is employed. The split mantle tomographic inversion SHS/U4L8 leads to the contradictory conclusion that the mantle circulation is significantly impeded across the 660 km depth horizon. This latter interpretation is reinforced when we employ the new higher resolution split mantle model SH12/U7L5 in our calculations. We demonstrate that the depth-dependent radial heat flow delivered by both of the split models implies the existence of a thermal boundary layer at 660 km depth, and therefore significant layering, whereas that delivered by the whole mantle model does not. By insisting that the depth-dependent viscosity profile of the mantle be compatible with the thermal structure if the flow were layered, we argue that the split mantle tomographic inversions lead to a self-consistent description of geodynamic constraints (geoid and postglacial rebound data).

Description: Asymmetry of wind waves was studied in laboratory tank tinder varied wind and fetch conditions using both bispectral analysis of wave records and third-order statistics of the surface elevation. It is found skewness S (the normalized third-order moment of surface elevation describing the horizontal asymmetry waves) varies only slightly with the inverse wave u*/Cm (where u* is the air friction velocity and Cm is phase speed of the dominant waves). At the same time asymmetry A, which is determined from the Hilbert transform of the wave record and characterizes the skewness of the rate of change of surface elevation, increase consistently in magnitude with the ratio u*/Cm. This suggests that nonlinear distortion of the wave profile determined by the degree of wind forcing and is a sensitive indicator of wind-wave interaction processes. It is shown that the asymmetric profile of waves can described within the frameworks of the nonlinear nonspectral concept (Plate, 1972; Lake and Yuen, 197 according to which the wind-wave field can be represented as a coherent bound-wave system consisting mainly of dominant component w. and its harmonics propagating with the same speed C. , as observed by Ramamonjiaris and Coantic (1976). The phase shift between o). harmonics is found and shown to increase with the asymmetry of the waves.

Description: An approach to solve 3D inverse problem associated with inverting seismic reflection data is presented. It exploits the a priori assumption that the reflection data, reduced properly, can be interpreted as a perturbation of a dynamical response of a certain 'reference background'. It is supposed that the corresponding perturbation of medium parameters can be treated in terms of the 'Ray + Born'- or 'Rytov + Born'- set of medium functions. This for the reflection data means that 'kinematical' part does not generate reflections, while proper reflections are caused by single-scattering perturbations. Moreover, it is guessed that the latters are cooperated in a vicinity of a certain unknown 2D smooth surface ('Interfaces'). When this a I ' information is adequate, the approach allows to recover both the low-frequency features of the medium (the background) and its discontinuities. The approach involves a new optimization criterion, called the Entropy of Image Contrast (EnIC), and a new global optimization algorithm, called Regularized Global Approximation algorithm (RGA-algorithm). It allows to choose such a background that the linerized inversion provides the most focused image of interfaces. In other words, it yields the maximum-contrast, or minimum-entropy, interface image. The method takes into account the large amounts of data that have to be processed in 3D inversion and the sparseness of input data. It is also robust with respect to the noise in the data.

Description: The atmospheric behaviour near an orographic obstacle has been thoroughly studied in the last decades. The first papers in this field were mainly theoretical, being more recent the laboratory experiments which represented that behaviour in ideal conditions. The numerical simulations have been addressed lately thanks to the development of computers. But the study of meteorology in complex terrain has lacked experiments in the atmosphere to understand the real influence the relief has on it. In this paper the problem has been considered from the last perspective, and so, seasons of measure of the atmospheric variables within the boundary layer have been organized with the goal of checking existing theories and bringing right conclusions from real experiment in the atmosphere. Controverted aspects of linear and nonlinear theories, as the location of critical points upwind and downwind of an orographic obstacle, will be analyzed. The results obtained show a large adequacy between the forecasted behaviour and the experimentally detected.

Description: We present the characteristics of the Electrostatic Solitary Waves (ESW) observed by the Geotail spacecraft in the plasma sheet boundary layer based on the statistical analyses. We also discuss the results referring to a model of ESW generation due to electron beams, which is proposed by computer simulations. In this generation model, the nonlinear evolution of Langmuir waves excited by electron bump-on-tail instabilities leads to formation of isolated electrostatic potential structures corresponding to "electron hole" in the phase space. The statistical analyses of the Geotail data, which we conducted under the assumption that polarity of ESW potentials is positive, show that most of ESW propagate in the same direction of electron beams, which are observed by the plasma instrument, simultaneously. Further, we also find that the ESW potential energy is much smaller than the background electron thermal energy and that the ESW potential widths are typically shorter than 60 times of local electron Debye length when we assume that the ESW potentials travel in the same velocity of electron beams. These results are very consistent with the ESW generation model that the nonlinear evolution of electron bump-on-tail instability leads to the formation of electron holes in the phase space.

Description: Magnetic field Decreases (MDs) are detected in the heliospheric polar regions. The MDs have minimum spatial scales sizes of 25 proton thermal gyroradii, and are typically bounded by tangential or rotational discontinuities. The distribution of the magnitudes of the decreases within AIDs is a continuum, with the smallest decreases being most frequent in occurrence. The largest decreases can be 80% of the ambient field. The thickness distribution is also a continuum, and is shown to be independent of the field magnitude decrease. Charged particle interactions with the MDs lead to particle guiding center displacements and hence particle cross-held diffusion. We develop a diffusion model to apply to energetic ion interactions with MDs using the MD properties described in this paper. One specific day of data is used to illustrate that the particle cross-field diffusion will be extremely rapid due to such interactions.

Description: Alfvénic solutions of nondissipative MHD are entirely determined by their magnetic configuration. With the supplementary assumption of incompressibility any solenoidal field can be used to construct an Alfvénic solution. It is demonstrated that for nondissipative and compressible MHD the energy equation constrains the magnetic field of Alfvénic solutions to have a constant strength along field lines. Some topological solitons known in nondissipative and incompressible MHD do not have this property. New localized axisymmetric Alfvénic solutions of nondissipative and compressible MHD are explicitly constructed.

Description: Interaction of nonlinear electrostatic pulses associated with electron phase density holes moving in a collisionless plasma is studied. An elementary event of the interaction is analyzed on the basis of the energy balance in the system consisting of two electrostatic solitary waves. It is established that an intrinsic property of the system is a specific irreversibility caused by a nonadiabatic modification of the internal structure of the holes and their effective heating in the process of the interaction. This dynamical irreversibility is closely connected with phase mixing of the trapped electrons comprising the holes and oscillating in the varying self-consistent potential wells. As a consequence of the irreversibility, the "collisions" of the solitary waves should be treated as "inelastic" ones. This explains the general tendency to the merging of the phase density holes frequently observed in numerical simulation and to corresponding coupling of the solitary waves.

Description: The nonlinear dustgrain-charging and the influence of the ion density and temperature on electrostatic waves in a dusty plasma having trapped ions are investigated by numerical calculation. This work is the first approach to the effect of trapped ions in dusty plasmas. The nonlinear variation of the dust-charge is examined, and it is shown that the characteristics of the dustcharge number sensitively depend on the plasma potential, Mach number, dust mass-to-charge ratio, trapped ion density and temperature. The fast and slow wave modes are shown in this system. An increase of the ion temperature decreases the dust-charging rate and the propagation speed of ion waves. It is found that the existence of electrostatic ion waves sensitively depends on the ion to electron density ratio. New findings of the variable-charge dust grain particles, ion density and temperature in a dusty plasma with trapped ions are predicted.

Description: A nonlinear wave, in general, is equivalent to a nonlinear dynamical system, which exhibits the phenomena of chaos. By means of techniques of nonlinear dynamical systems, we have investigated the conditions under which nonlinear Alfvén waves and lower-hybrid waves can become chaotic. The role of heavy ions, in controlling the chaos in magnetoplasmas, is examined. Chaotic routes to Alfvénic turbulence, with k-1 spectra, are observed in case of externally driven nonlinear Alfvén waves. Anomalous heating and particle acceleration resulting from chaotic fields, generated by lower-hybrid waves, are briefly outlined.

Description: In this paper we investigate whether observed intraseasonal variability in the equatorial Pacific can be attributed to finite amplitude waves resulting from unstable air-sea interactions. Within a Zebiak - Cane type model of the coupled equatorial ocean - atmosphere, the nonlinear equilibration of instabilities of a simple basic state is considered with periodic conditions on the ocean boundaries. Three mechanisms exist which can induce a finite amplitude equilibration on a time scale ε2t. Here t is the characteristic time scale of growth of the disturbance and ε the relative distance from the instability threshold. For each equilibration mechanism, the finite amplitude and period of the equilibrium state are computed as a function of ε and substantial amplitude can be reached for a reasonable degree of supercriticality. Thereafter the analysis is extended to include time-dependent external forcing. It is shown that interannual variability may result through the interaction of the response of a weak annual external forcing and the finite amplitude development of the intraseasonal instabilities.

Description: A one-dimensional Burridge-Knopoff spring-block model with slip-dependent friction was studied to explore the possibility of a solitary wave solution existing for the problem of earthquake faulting. The result may be used as an alternative case of the crack model (e.g., Madariaga and Cochard, 1996) and the spring-block model with velocity-dependent friction (e.g., Carlson and Langer, 1989) in the understanding of the mechanism of the self-healing slip pulse proposed by Heaton (1990). In general, the conditions for a solitary wave solution to exist are discussed by the trajectory in the phase space. By taking the first order approximation, it is demonstrated that a solitary wave solution exists in which the slip behaves as a propagating solitary wave with the propagation velocity less than that of an acoustic (seismic) wave, and the source time function at each position remains the same. As an alternative approach other than numerical calculations, the analytical solution, although simple, sheds light on some of the properties of the self-healing slip pulse. From the solution it is seen that the width of the pulse depends on its propagation velocity and the friction, consistent with experience in physics. It is pointed out that the self-healing slip pulse may exist for a broad class of frictional constitutive laws which, to some extent, explains the fact that the self-healing slip pulse may be observed for a variety of earthquakes occurring within different seismogenic environments.

Description: We consider solitary waves propagating on the interface between two fluids, each of constant density, for the case when the upper fluid is bounded above by a rigid horizontal plane, but the lower fluid has a variable depth. It is well-known that in this situation, the solitary waves can be described by a variable-coefficient Korteweg-de Vries equation. Here we reconsider the derivation of this equation and present a formulation which preserves the Hamiltonian structure of the underlying system. The result is a new variable-coefficient Korteweg-de Vries equation, which conserves energy to a higher order than the more conventional well-known equation. The new equation is used to describe the transformation of an interfacial solitary wave which propagates into a region of decreasing depth.

Description: The run-up of solitary-type pulses propagating at a small angle with respect to the shore normal is analysed by means of a weakly-two-dimensional extension of a solution of the nonlinear shallow water equations for a non-breaking, solitary pulse incident and reflecting on an inclined plane beach similar to that of Synolakis (1987). A simple analytic expression for the longshore velocity of the solitarytype pulse is given along with examples of computations. The proposed solution can be employed in modelling run-up flow properties of solitary-type pulses (e.g. tsunamis, primary waves of wave groups propagating in shallow waters, ...). The hodograph transformation that is used and the flow properties are illustrated in terms of contour plots. A limiting pulse amplitude is defined such that breakdown of the solution occurs. A solution for the run-up of multiplesolitary-pulses in shallow waters is also described. Some of the salient characteristics are illustrated and discussed. Breakdown conditions are analytically defined also for the multiple-solitary-pulses solution. A strong condition is given which couples information on both pulses amplitudes and distances. An easier (but weaker) version of the criterion is given in terms of a pair of decoupled formulae one for the Pulses amplitudes and the second for their initial positions. Very large run-up is achieved because of the merging of two or more solitary pulses which are smaller than the limiting Pulse. The role of pulse separation within a group of solitary Pulses is also analysed in terms of both a 'nonlinearity parameter' N and a 'groupiness parameter' G. It is found that a critical distance exists between two pulses which minimizes the back-wash velocity and, as a consequence, the nonlinearity parameter N.

Description: The dynamics of weakly nonlinear wave trains in unstable media is studied. This dynamics is investigated in the framework of a broad class of dynamical systems having a Hamiltonian structure. Two different types of instability are considered. The first one is the instability in a weakly supercritical media. The simplest example of instability of this type is the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. The second one is the instability due to a weak linear coupling of modes of different nature. The simplest example of a geophysical system where the instability of this and only of this type takes place is the three-layer model of a stratified shear flow with a continuous velocity profile. For both types of instability we obtain nonlinear evolution equations describing the dynamics of wave trains having an unstable spectral interval of wavenumbers. The transformation to appropriate canonical variables turns out to be different for each case, and equations we obtained are different for the two types of instability we considered. Also obtained are evolution equations governing the dynamics of wave trains in weakly subcritical media and in media where modes are coupled in a stable way. Presented results do not depend on a specific physical nature of a medium and refer to a broad class of dynamical systems having the Hamiltonian structure of a special form.

Description: A new model for simulating non-negative random processes is developed. The model is based on a bounded random multiplicative cascade with a lognormal generator with the scale parameter dependent on the number of steps in the cascade. It is shown, both analytically and numerically, that the simulated field has multiaffine properties within some restricted range of scales. This type of random processes is defined here as quasi-multiaffine. A procedure for retrieving the modelling parameters from real data is also discussed.

Description: TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) sea level deviation (SLD) time series from 3 October 1992 to 15 May 1997 combined with upper ocean thermal structures are used to observe the characteristics and analyze the dynamics of equatorial waves in the Pacific Ocean. The evolution of the Kelvin wave propagating along an eastward shoaling thermocline in the equatorial Pacific is investigated. The behaviour of this wave as it propagates eastward can be approximately described with the solutions of the perturbed Korteweg-de Vries (PKDV) equation and modified Green's Law. Assuming that the nonlinear term and dispersive term of this equation are balanced, the amplitude increases as the thermocline decreases to the power -3/8. Approaching the eastern Pacific, the nonlinearity increases and the relation changes to the power -9/8. The dispersion relation, and mass and energy conservations are investigated. The results indicate that under a varying thermocline, the nonlinear Kelvin solitary waves indeed exist in the real ocean.

Description: The Rayleigh number-Nusselt number, and the Rayleigh number-thermal boundary layer thickness relationships are determined for the three-dimensional convection in a spherical shell of constant physical parameters. Several models are considered with Rayleigh numbers ranging from 1.1 x 102 to 2.1 x 105 times the critical Rayleigh number. At lower Rayleigh numbers the Nusselt number of the three-dimensional convection is greater than that predicted from the boundary layer theory of a horizontal layer but agrees well with the results of an axisymmetric convection in a spherical shell. At high Rayleigh numbers of about 105 times the critical value, which are the characteristics of the mantle convection in terrestrial planets, the Nusselt number of the three-dimensional convection is in good agreement with that of the boundary layer theory. At even higher Rayleigh numbers, the Nusselt number of the three-dimensional convection becomes less than those obtained from the boundary layer theory. The thicknesses of the thermal boundary layers of the spherical shell are not identical, unlike those of the horizontal layer. The inner thermal boundary is thinner than the outer one, by about 30- 40%. Also, the temperature drop across the inner boundary layer is greater than that across the outer boundary layer.

Description: We examine the interaction of near-surface and near- bottom flows over bottom topography. A set of asymptotic equations for geostrophic currents in a three-layer fluid is derived. The depths of the active (top/bottom) layers are assumed small, the slope of the bottom is weak, the interfacial displacement is comparable to the depths of the thinner layers. Using the equations derived, we examine the stability of parallel flows and circular eddies. It is demonstrated that eddies with non-zero near-surface component are always unstable; eddies localized in the near-bottom layer may be stable subject to additional restrictions imposed on their horizontal profiles and bottom topography.

Description: Long-time evolution of large-scale geophysical flows is considered in a β-plane approximation. Motions in an infinite 2-layer model ocean are treated as a system of weakly nonlinear Rossby waves (weak geostrophic turbulence). The evolution of the energy spectrum of the barotropic and the baroclinic modes is investigated on the basis of numerical experiments with the kinetic equation for baroclinic Rossby waves. The basic features of free (nonforced inviscid) spectral evolution of baroclinic flows are similar to those of the barotropic motions. A portion of the energy is transferred to a sharp spectral peak while the rest of it is isotropically distributed. The peak corresponds to an intensive nearly zonal barotropic flow. Typically, this well-defined barotropic zonal anisotropy inhibits the reinforcement of its baroclinic analogy. For a certain set of initial conditions (in particular, if the barotropic zonal flow is not present initially), a zonal anisotropy of both modes is generated. The interplay between the multimodal nearly zonal flow components leads to the excitation of large-scale (several times exceeding the scale of the initial state), mostly meridional, baroclinic motions at the expense of the barotropic nearly zonal flow. The underlying mechanism is explained on the level of elementary mixed-triad interaction. The whole wave field retains its essentially baroclinic as well as spectrally broad nature. It evidently tends towards a thermodynamically equilibrated final state, consisting of the superposition of a (usually barotropic, but occasionally multimodal) zonal flow and a wave system with a Raleigh-Jeans spectrum. This evolution takes place as a multi-staged process, with fast convergence of the modal spectra to a local equilibrium followed by a more gradual adjustment of the energy balance between the modes.

Description: Breaking wave energy in the surf zone is modelled through the incorporation of the time dependent energy balance equation in a non linear dispersive wave propagation model. The energy equations solved simultaneously with the momentum and continuity equation. Turbulence effects and the non uniform horizontal velocity distribution due to breaking is introduced in both the energy and momentum equations. The dissipation term is a function of the velocity defect derived from a turbulent analysis. The resulting system predicts both wave characteristics (surface elevation and velocity) and the energy distribution inside surf zone. The model is validated against experimental data and analytical expressions.

Description: 1 Facts about the Workshop This workshop was convened on November 13-15 1995 by E. Falgarone and D. Schertzer within the framework of the Groupe de Recherche Mecanique des Fluides Geophysiques et Astrophysiques (GdR MFGA, Research Group of Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Mechanics) of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, (French) National Center for Scientific Research). This Research Group is chaired by A. Babiano and the meeting was held at Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, by courtesy of its Director E. Guyon. More than sixty attendees participated to this workshop, they came from a large number of institutions and countries from Europe, Canada and USA. There were twenty-five oral presentations as well as a dozen posters. A copy of the corresponding book of abstracts can be requested to the conveners. The theme of this meeting is somewhat related to the series of Nonlinear Variability in Geophysics conferences (NVAG1, Montreal, Aug. 1986; NVAG2, Paris, June 1988; NVAG3, Cargese (Corsica), September, 1993), as well as seven consecutive annual sessions at EGS general assemblies and two consecutive spring AGU meeting sessions devoted to similar topics. One may note that NVAG3 was a joint American Geophysical Union Chapman and European Geophysical Society Richardson Memorial conference, the first topical conference jointly sponsored by the two organizations. The corresponding proceedings were published in a special NPG issue (Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics 1, 2/3, 1994). In comparison with these previous meetings, MFGA-IDT2 is at the same time specialized to fluid turbulence and its intermittency, and an extension to the fields of astrophysics. Let us add that Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics was readily chosen as the appropriate journal for publication of these proceedings since this journal was founded in order to develop interdisciplinary fundamental research and corresponding innovative nonlinear methodologies in Geophysics. It had an appropriate editorial structure, in particular a large number of editors covering a wide range of methodologies, expertises and schools. At least two of its sections (Scaling and Multifractals, Turbulence and Diffusion) were directly related to the topics of the workshop, in any case contributors were invited to choose their editor freely. 2 Goals of the Workshop The objective of this meeting was to enhance the confrontation between turbulence theories and empirical data from geophysics and astrophysics fluids with very high Reynolds numbers. The importance of these data seems to have often been underestimated for the evaluation of theories of fully developed turbulence, presumably due to the fact that turbulence does not appear as pure as in laboratory experiments. However, they have the great advantage of giving access not only to very high Reynolds numbers (e.g. 1012 for atmospheric data), but also to very large data sets. It was intended to: (i) provide an overview of the diversity of potentially available data, as well as the necessary theoretical and statistical developments for a better use of these data (e.g. treatment of anisotropy, role of processes which induce other nonlinearities such as thermal instability, effect of magnetic field and compressibility ... ), (ii) evaluate the means of discriminating between different theories (e.g. multifractal intermittency models) or to better appreciate the relevance of different notions (e.g. Self-Organized Criticality) or phenomenology (e.g. filaments, structures), (iii) emphasise the different obstacles, such as the ubiquity of catastrophic events, which could be overcome in the various concerned disciplines, thanks to theoretical advances achieved. 3 Outlines of the Workshop During the two days of the workshop, the series of presentations covered many manifestations of turbulence in geophysics, including: oceans, troposphere, stratosphere, very high atmosphere, solar wind, giant planets, interstellar clouds... up to the very large scale of the Universe. The presentations and the round table at the end of the workshop pointed out the following: - the necessity of this type of confrontation which makes intervene numerical simulations, laboratory experiments, phenomenology as well as a very large diversity of geophysical and astrophysical data, - presumably a relative need for new geophysical data, whereas there have been recent astrophysical experiments which yield interesting data and exciting questions; - the need to develop a closer intercomparison between various intermittency models (in particular Log-Poisson /Log Levy models). Two main questions were underlined, in particular during the round table: - the behaviour of the extremes of intermittency, in particular the question of divergence or convergence of the highest statistical moments (equivalently, do the probability distributions have algebraic or more rapid falloffs?); - the extension of scaling ranges; in other words do we need to divide geophysics and astrophysics in many small (nearly) isotropic subranges or is it sufficient to use anisotropic scaling notions over wider ranges? 4 The contributions in this special issue Recalling that some of the most useful insights into the nature of turbulence in fluids have come from observations of geophysical flows, Van Atta gives a review of the impacts of geophysical turbulence data into theories. His paper starts from Taylor's inference of the nearly isotropy of atmospheric turbulence and the corresponding elegant theoretical developments by von Karman of the theory of isotropic turbulence, up to underline the fact that the observed extremely large intermittency in geophysical turbulence also raised new fundamental questions for turbulence theory. The paper discusses the potential contribution to theoretical development from the available or currently being made geophysical turbulence measurements, as well as from some recent laboratory measurements and direct numerical simulations of stably stratified turbulent shear flows. Seuront et al. consider scaling and multiscaling properties of scalar fields (temperature and phytoplankton concentration) advected by oceanic turbulence in both Eulerian and Lagrangian frameworks. Despite the apparent complexity linked to a multifractal background, temperature and fluorescence (i.e. phytoplankton biomass surrogate) fields are expressed over a wide range of scale by only three universal multifractal parameters, H, \alpha and C_l. On scales smaller than the characteristic scale of the ship, sampling is rather Eulerian. On larger scales, the drifting platform being advected by turbulent motions, sampling may be rather considered as Lagrangian. Observed Eulerian and Lagrangian universal multifractal properties of the physical and biological fields are discussed. Whereas theoretical models provide different scaling laws for fluid and MHD turbulent flows, no attempt has been done up to now to experimentally support evidence for these differences. Carbone et al. use measurements from the solar wind turbulence and from turbulence in ordinary fluid flows, in order to assess these differences. They show that the so-called Extended Self-Similarity (ESS) is evident in the solar wind turbulence up to a certain scale. Furthermore, up to a given order of the velocity structure functions, the scaling laws of MHD and fluids flows axe experimentally indistinguishable. However, differences can be observed for higher orders and the authors speculate on their origin. Dudok de Wit and Krasnosel'skikh present analysis of strong plasma turbulence in the vicinity of the Earth's bow shock with the help of magnetometer data from the AMPTE UKS satellite. They demonstrate that there is a departure from Gaussianity which could be a signature of multifractality. However, they point out that the complexity of plasma turbulence precludes a more quantitative understanding. Finally, the authors emphasise the fact that the duration of records prevents to obtain any reliable estimate of structure functions beyond the fourth order. Sylos Labini and Pietronero discuss the problem of galaxy correlations. They conclude from all the recently available three dimensional catalogues that the distribution of galaxies and clusters is fractal with dimension D ~ 2 up to the present observational limits without any tendency towards homogenization. This result is discussed in contrast to angular data analysis. Furthermore, they point out that the galaxy-cluster mismatch disappears when considering a multifractal distribution of matter. They emphasise that a new picture emerges which changes the standard ideas about the properties of the universe and requires a corresponding change in the related theoretical concepts. Chilla et al. investigate with the help of a laboratory experiment the possible influence of the presence of a large scale structure on the intermittency of small scale structures. They study a flow between coaxial co-rotating disks generating a strong axial vortex over a turbulent background. They show that the cascade process is preserved although strongly modified and they discuss the relevance of parameters developed for the description of intermittency in homogeneous turbulence to evaluate this modification.

Description: A numerical model is developed for the simulation of debris flow in landslides over a complex three dimensional topography. The model is then validated by comparing a simulation with reported field data. Our model is in fact a realistic elaboration of simpler "sandpile automata", which have in recent years been studied as supposedly paradigmatic of "self-organized criticality". Statistics and scaling properties of the simulation are examined, and show that the model has an intermittent behaviour.

Description: In this paper we review some of the work done in investigating the scaling properties of Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, by using velocity fluctuations measurements performed in the interplanetary space plasma by the Helios spacecraft. The set of scaling exponents ξq for the q-th order velocity structure functions, have been determined by using the Extended Self-Similarity hypothesis. We have found that the q-th order velocity structure function, when plotted vs. the 4-th order structure function, displays a range of self-similarity which extends over all the lengths covered by measurements, thus allowing for a very good determination of ξq. Moreover the results seem to show that the scaling exponents are the same regardless the various observation periods considered. The obtained scaling exponents have been compared with the results of some intermittency models for Kraichnan's turbulence, derived in the framework of infinitely divisible fragmentation processes, showing the good agreement between these models and our observations. Finally, on the basis of the actually available data sets, we show that scaling laws in Solar Wind turbulence seem to be different from turbulent scaling laws in the ordinary fluid flows. This is true for high-order velocity structure functions, while low-order velocity structure functions show the same scaling laws. Since our measurements involve length scales which extend over many order of magnitude where dissipation is practically absent, our results show that Solar Wind turbulence can be regarded as a testing bench for the investigation of general scaling behaviour in turbulent flows. In particular our results strongly support the point of view which attributes a key role to the inertial range dynamics in determining the intermittency characteristics in fluid flows, in contrast with the point of view which attributes intermittency to a finite Reynolds number effect.

Description: The relation between the spatial diffusion coefficient along the magnetic field, kII, and the momentum diffusion coefficient, Dp, for relativistic cosmic ray particles is modelled using Monte Carlo simulations. Wave fields with vanishing wave helicity and cross-helicity, constructed by superposing 'Alfvén-like' waves are considered. As the result, particle trajectories in high amplitude wave fields and then - by averaging over these trajectories - the values of transport coefficients are derived. The modelling is performed at various wave amplitudes, from δ B/B0 = 0.15 to 2.0, and for a number of wave field types. At our small amplitudes approximately the quasi-linear theory (QLT) estimates for kII and Dp are reproduced. However, with growing wave amplitude the simulated results show a small divergence from the QLT ones, with kII decreasing slower than theoretical prediction and the opposite being true for Dp. The wave field form gives only a slight influence on the wave-particle interactions at large wave amplitudes δ B/B0 ~ 1. The parameter characterizing the relative efficiency of the second-order to the first-order acceleration at shock waves, Dp κII is given in the QLT approximation by the Skilling formula V2A p2 / 9. In simulations together with increasing δ B it increases above this scale in all the cases under our study. Consequences of the present results for the second-order Fermi acceleration at shock waves are briefly addressed.

Description: The classical method of statistical physics deduces the macroscopic behaviour of a system from the organization and interactions of its microscopical constituents. This kind of problem can often be solved using procedures deduced from the Renormalization Group Theory, but in some cases, the basic microscopic rail are unknown and one has to deal only with the intrinsic geometry. The wavelet analysis concept appears to be particularly adapted to this kind of situation as it highlights details of a set at a given analyzed scale. As fractures and faults generally define highly anisotropic fields, we defined a new renormalization procedure based on the use of anisotropic wavelets. This approach consists of finding an optimum filter will maximizes wavelet coefficients at each point of the fie] Its intrinsic definition allows us to compute a rose diagram of the main structural directions present in t field at every scale. Scaling properties are determine using a multifractal box-counting analysis improved take account of samples with irregular geometry and finite size. In addition, we present histograms of fault length distribution. Our main observation is that different geometries and scaling laws hold for different rang of scales, separated by boundaries that correlate well with thicknesses of lithological units that constitute the continental crust. At scales involving the deformation of the crystalline crust, we find that faulting displays some singularities similar to those commonly observed in Diffusion- Limited Aggregation processes.

Description: Four data sets of density fluctuations measured in-situ by the Dynamics Explorer (DE 2) were analyzed in an attempt to study chaotic nature of the high-latitude turbulence and, in this way to complement the conventional spectral analysis. It has been found that the probability distribution function of density differences is far from Gaussian and similar to that observed in the intermittent fluid or MBD turbulence. This indicates that ionospheric density fluctuations are not stochastic but coherent to some extent. Wayland's and surrogate data tests for determinism in a time series of density data allowed us to differentiate between regions of intense shear and moderate shear. We observe that in the region of strong field aligned currents (FAC) and intense shear, or along the convection in the collisional regime, ionospheric turbulence behaves like a random noise with non-Gaussian statistics implying that the underlying physical process is nondeterministic. On the other hand, when FACs are weak, and shear is moderate or observations made in the inertial regime the turbulence is chaotic. The attractor dimension is lowest (1.9) for "old" convected irregularities. The dimension 3.2 is found for turbulence in the inertial regime and considerably smaller (2.4) in the collisional regime. It is suggested that a high dimension in the inertial regime may be caused by a complicated velocity structure in the shear instability region.

Description: A one-dimensional, nine-mode spectral model for temperature, velocity, and the mixing ratios of suspended and precipitating ice-particle components is shown to be consistent with ice-cloud observations. The observations include Doppler radar time-series measurements of a single winter ice cloud and direct measurements of mean particle size vs. icewater content for a set of ice clouds. Fitting of the model to the Doppler vertical-velocity measurements allows a prediction to be made of the vertical scale and turbulent Prandtl number active in the ice-cloud vertical motions. The model is then used to explore the question of how turbulence and gravity-wave motions affect the microphysical properties of an ice cloud. The model predicts interesting dynamical effects on the mixing ratios due to these motions, but no significant effects on the time-averaged microphysical quantities.

Description: Climate - the "coarse-gridded" state of the coupled ocean - atmosphere system - varies on many time and space scales. The challenge is to relate such variation to specific mechanisms and to produce verifiable quantitative explanations. In this paper, we study the oceanic component of the climate system and, in particular, the different circulation regimes of the mid-latitude win driven ocean on the interannual time scale. These circulations are dominated by two counterrotating, basis scale gyres: subtropical and subpolar. Numerical techniques of bifurcation theory are used to stud the multiplicity and stability of the steady-state solution of a wind-driven, double-gyre, reduced-gravity, shallow water model. Branches of stationary solutions and their linear stability are calculated systematically as parameter are varied. This is one of the first geophysical studies i which such techniques are applied to a dynamical system with tens of thousands of degrees of freedom. Multiple stationary solutions obtain as a result of nonlinear interactions between the two main recirculating cell (cyclonic and anticyclonic) of the large- scale double-gyre flow. These equilibria appear for realistic values of the forcing and dissipation parameters. They undergo Hop bifurcation and transition to aperiodic solutions eventually occurs. The periodic and chaotic behaviour is probably related to an increased number of vorticity cells interaction with each other. A preliminary comparison with observations of the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio Extensions suggests that the intern variability of our simulated mid-latitude ocean is a important factor in the observed interannual variability o these two current systems.

Description: Seismically-active fault zones are complex natural systems exhibiting scale-invariant or fractal correlation between earthquakes in space and time, and a power-law scaling of fault length or earthquake source dimension consistent with the exponent b of the Gutenberg-Richter frequency-magnitude relation. The fractal dimension of seismicity is a measure of the degree of both the heterogeneity of the process (whether fixed or self-generated) and the clustering of seismic activity. Temporal variations of the b-value and the two-point fractal (correlation) dimension Dc have been related to the preparation process for natural earthquakes and rock fracture in the laboratory These statistical scaling properties of seismicity may therefore have the potential at least to be sensitive short- term predictors of major earthquakes. The North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) is a seismicallyactive dextral strike slip fault zone which forms the northern boundary of the westward moving Anatolian plate. It is splayed into three branches at about 31oE and continues westward toward the northern Aegean sea. In this study, we investigate the temporal variation of Dc and the Gutenberg-Richter b-value for seismicity in the western part of the NAFZ (including the northern Aegean sea) for earthquakes of Ms 〉 4.5 occurring in the period between 1900 and 1992. b ranges from 0.6-1.6 and Dc from 0.6 to 1.4. The b-value is found to be weakly negatively correlated with Dc (r=-0.56). However the (log of) event rate N is positively correlated with b, with a similar degree of statistical significance (r=0.42), and negatively correlated with Dc (r=-0.48). Since N increases dramatically with improved station coverage since 1970, the observed negative correlation between b and Dc is therefore more likely to be due to this effect than any underlying physical process in this case. We present this as an example of how man-made artefacts of recording can have similar statistical effects to underlying processes.

Description: Occurrence of successive earthquake events in space is analysed by means of semi-stochastic processes. The analysis employs earthquakes events with M 〉 5.2 from the area of Greece and its surroundings (18-31° E, 34-43° N) for the time interval 1911-1985. The sequence of earthquake occurrences can be only marginally described by a first order Markov chain model. Substitutability analysis incorporates the results of Markov Chains, revealing, though, detailed interrelations of parts (subareas) of the study area, not appreciated in Markov Chain analysis. Reactivation of particular subareas provides an insight into the level of interaction between neighbouring seismogenic sources within a subarea. The earthquake occurrence pattern provides evidence for the effect of a significant stress diffusion through time in the sense of a stress front. Taking into account the limitations of the methodologies applied, results indicate the importance of large-scale monitoring of seismicity, which assist in the identification of particular characteristics of the earthquake occurrence in space and time.

Description: The process of thermocline evolution under the action of turbulent stream in the upper layer is investigated in laboratory experiment in thermally stratified tank, the initial temperature profile with pronounced thermocline being similar to that observed in tropic seas. The mean velocity and turbulent energy spatial distributions have been shaped to model the hydrological conditions in strong oceanic currents or wind-induced drag currents. The experiment demonstrates the gradual deepening and transformation of thermocline in a case where no global instability took place (i.e., with Richardson numbers always exceeding 0.3-0.4). The process of thermocline evolution resulted also in recurring "bursts" of microstructure. A numerical experiment based on equations of semi-empirical theory of turbulence shows quantitative agreement with experimental data. Moreover, simple analytical solutions and numerical results show that a layer with marginal stability is formed with Richardson numbers being very close to the stability threshold, so that quite small disturbances in thermocline can result in appearance of internal waves and bursts of turbulence.

Description: The measurements of the vertical structure of hydrological fields and internal waves on the Levantine Sea's polygon in the Mediterranean, obtained in the 27-th cruise of the RV "Professor Kolesnikov" in 1991, have been used to estimate the kinematic and nonlinear characteristics of the internal wave field. Statistical and spatial distributions of the vertical profiles of the Brunt-Vaisala frequency are described. They have been used to calculate the coefficients of the Korteweg - de Vries equation. This equation forms the main model for nonlinear parameters. It is shown that the variations of the long wave speed propagation and the dispersion parameter are relatively small in comparison with the variation of the nonlinear parameter. Estimations of the nonlinear properties of the internal waves, being measured, based on the calculation of the local Ursell parameter are given. This method can be used for investigation of the internal wave transformation processes in oceanic regions with horizontal variability of the hydrophysical fields (temperature, salinity) and sloped sea floor.

Description: In this study we have used dynamical characteristies such as Lyapunov exponents, nonlinear dynamic models and mutual information for the nonlinear analysis of the magnetospheric AE index time series. Similarly with the geometrical characteristic studied in Pavlos et al. (1999b), we have found significant differences between the original time series and its surrogate data. These results also suggest the rejection of the null hypothesis that the AE index belongs to the family of stochastic linear signals undergoing a static nonlinear distortion. Finally, we believe that these results support the hypothesis of nonlinearity and chaos for the magnetospheric dynamics.

Description: Recent observations from satellites crossing regions of magnetic-field-aligned electron streams reveal solitary potential structures that move at speeds much greater than the ion acoustic/thermal velocity. The structures appear as positive potential pulses rapidly drifting along the magnetic field, and are electrostatic in their rest frame. We interpret them as BGK electron holes supported by a drifting population of trapped electrons. Using Laplace transforms, we analyse the behavior of one phase-space electron hole. The resulting potential shapes and electron distribution functions are self-consistent and compatible with the field and particle data associated with the observed pulses. In particular, the spatial width increases with increasing amplitude. The stability of the analytic solution is tested by means of a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation code with open boundaries. We consider a strongly magnetized parameter regime in which the bounce frequency of the trapped electrons is much less than their gyrofrequency. Our investigation includes the influence of the ions, which in the frame of the hole appear as an incident beam, and impinge on the BGK potential with considerable energy. The nonlinear structure is remarkably resilient

Description: We present detailed observations of electromagnetic waves and particle distributions from the Fast Auroral SnapshoT (FAST) satellite which reveal many important properties of large-amplitude, spatially-coherent plasma structures known as "fast solitary structures" or "electron phase space holes". Similar structures have been observed in several regions of the magnetosphere including the auroral zone, plasma sheet boundary layer, and bow shock. There has been rapid theoretical progress in understanding these structures. Solitary structures can develop from bidirectional electron beams. Once developed, the one-dimensional properties parallel to the magnetic field can be adequately described by analytical treatment as BGK structures. There remains, however, several unanswered questions. The origin of the bidirectional electron beams, the development of two-or three-dimensional structures, and the observed association with the ion cyclotron frequency are not well understood.

Description: Simulations based on random multiplicative cascade models are used to investigate the uncertainty in estimates of parameters characterizing the multiscaling nature of rainfall time series. The principal parameters used and discussed are the spectral exponent, β, and the K(q) function which characterizes the scaling of the moments. By simulating a large number of series, the sampling variability of parameter estimates in relation to the length of the time series is assessed and found to be in excess of 10%-20% for fields less than ~104 points in length. The issue of long time series which may consist of physically distinct processes with different statistics is addressed and it is shown that highly variable data mixed with an equal amount of less variable data of similar strength is dominated entirely by the statistics of the highly variable data. The effects on the estimates of β and K(q) with the addition of white noise or the tipping bucket effect (quantization) can also be significant, particularly following gradient transformations. Some high resolution rainfall data are also analyzed to illustrate how a single instrumental glitch can strongly bias results and how mixing physically different processes together can lead to incorrect conclusions.

Description: The Kirchhoff approximation is used to determine the sea state bias in radar altimetry. A weakly nonlinear model of the sea waves is used to derive the joint moments of two different points separated by a distance R; the bias moment is formulated, and found for power law spectra. The method provides a consistent analysis of the sea state bias and avoids the need to truncate the high frequency tail of power-law wave spectra. The model exhibits dependence of the "electromagnetic bias" on the radar frequency, an effect observed in field experiments.

Description: This paper gives a review of some recent work on intermittency, non-Gaussian statistics, and fractal scaling of solar wind magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. Model calculations and theories are discussed and put in their context with the in-situ observations of the solar wind fluctuations, essentially of the flow velocity and magnetic field. Emphasis is placed more on a comparison of the data with the theory than on a complete derivation of the model results, which are treated in a more tutorial fashion. The introduction reminds of some important observations and key aspects of the solar wind turbulence. Then structure functions are defined and observational results discussed. The probability density functions provide a direct means to analyse the statistical properties of the fluctuations. Evidence for non-Gaussian statistics is provided. Intermittency and simple scaling models are discussed, which yield algebraic expressions for the scaling exponents of the structure functions. The concept of the extended self-similarity is presented and corresponding observational evidence for its existence in the solar wind is provided. Subsequently, and extended structure function model, including the p-model scaling and a scale-dependent cascade, is discussed and compared with selected measurements. The basics of the multifractals are presented and applied to solar wind data. The multifractal scaling of the kinetic energy flux as proxy for the unknown cascading rate is established observationally, and the so-called multifractal spectrum is obtained. Finally, the scaling exponents of the associated correlation functions are derived and analysed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the empirical results and prospects for the future research in this field and in solar wind MHD turbulence in general.

Description: Manifestations of the so-called structure induced nonlinearity are considered for the case of a granular medium, the latter being a generally accepted model of nonconsolidated rocks in seismics. The consideration is carried out using the medium model in the form of the "ideal" random packing of spherical elastic granules in which the interparticle space can be filled with a fluid. A physical equation of such a medium is derived; the dependencies of nonlinear parameters on the grain material elastic moduli, the fluid compressibility and the initial medium strain are analyzed. The influence of defects in nonideal grain packings (that is, the presence of a fraction of unloaded intergranular contacts) upon the nonlinear properties of the medium is investigated. It is shown that the packing nonideality has the stronger effect on higher-order nonlinear properties. It is demonstrated that the nonlinear parameters may be used in exploration seismology as a much more sensitive and informative characteristic compared with conventionally used linear moduli.

Description: Bipolar wave structures and nonthermal particle distributions measured by the FAST satellite in regions of downward current are interpreted in terms of the nonlinear evolution of a two-stream instability. The instability results in holes, both in the electron distribution in phase space and in the electron density in real space. The wave potential energy, which traps the electrons, has a single minimum, and the associated electric field is bipolar. The early bipolar structures are coherent over hundreds of Debye lengths in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field. After thousands of plasma periods the perpendicular coherence is lost, the structures break up, and electrostatic whistlers begin to dominate. Simulations and preliminary analysis of this breakup and emission process are presented.

Description: The envelope formalism for the description of a small-amplitude parallel-propagating Alfvén wave train is tested against direct numerical simulations of the Hall-MHD equations in one space dimension where kinetic effects are neglected. It turns out that the magnetosonic-wave dynamics departs from the adiabatic approximation not only near the resonance between the speed of sound and the Alfvén wave group velocity, but also when the speed of sound lies between the group and phase velocities of the Alfvén wave. The modulational instability then does not anymore affect asymptotically large scales and strong nonlinear effects can develop even in the absence of the decay instability. When the Hall-MHD equations are considered in the long-wavelength limit, the weakly nonlinear dynamics is accurately reproduced by the derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation on the expected time scale, provided no decay instabilities are present. The stronger nonlinear regime which develops at later time is captured by including the coupling to the nonlinear dynamics of the magnetosonic waves.

Description: The orbit of the Polar spacecraft has been ideally suited for studying the turbulent region of the cusp that is located near or just outside the magnetopause current sheet at 7-9 RE. The wave data obtained in this region show that electromagnetic turbulence is dominant in the frequency range 1-10 Hz. The waves responsible for this turbulence usually propagate perpendicular to the local magnetic field and have an index of refraction that generally falls between the estimated cold plasma theoretical values of the electromagnetic lower hybrid and whistler modes and may be composed of both modes in concert with kinetic Alfvén waves and/or fast magnetosonic waves. Fourier spectra of the higher frequency wave data also show the electromagnetic turbulence at frequencies up to and near the electron cyclotron frequency. This higher frequency electromagnetic turbulence is most likely associated with whistler mode waves. The lower hybrid drift and current gradient instabilities are suggested as possible mechanisms for producing the turbulence. The plasma and field environment of this turbulent region is examined and found to be extremely complex. Some of the wave activity is associated with processes occurring locally, such as changes in the DC magnetic field, while others are associated with solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field changes.

Description: In this study we present theoretical concepts and results concerning the hypothesis test of the magnetospheric chaos. For this reason we compare the observational behavior of the magnetospheric system with results obtained by analysing different types of stochastic and deterministic input-output systems. The results of this comparison indicate that the hypothesis of lowdimensional chaos for the magnetospheric dynamics remains a possible and fruitful concept which must be developed further.

Description: The present work examines the effects arising from the nonlinear Landau damping and the bounced motion of protons (trapped in the mirror geometry of the geomagnetic field) in the formation of nonlinear Alfvénic structures. These structures are observed at distances 1-5AU in the solar wind plasma (with ß ~ 1). The dynamics of formation of these structures can be understood using kinetic nonlinear Schrodinger (KNLS) model. The structures emerge due to balance of nonlinear steepening (of large amplitude Alfvén waves) by the linear Landau damping of ion-acoustic modes in a finite ß solar wind plasma. The ion-acoustic mode is driven nonlinearly by the large amplitude Alfvén waves. At the large amplitudes of Alfvén wave, the effects due to nonlinear Landau damping become important. These nonlinear effects are incorporated into the KNLS model by modifying the heat flux dissipation coefficient parallel to the ambient magnetic field. The effects arising from the bounced motion (of mirroring protons) are studied using a one-dimensional Vlasov equation. The bounced motion of the protons can lead to growth of the ion-acoustic mode, propagating in the mirror geometry of the geomagnetic field. The significance of these studies in the formation of dissipative quasistationary structures observed in solar wind plasma is discussed.

Description: Hide (Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, 1998) has produced a new mathematical model of a self-exciting homopolar dynamo driving a series- wound motor, as a continuing contribution to the theory of the geomagnetic field. By a process of exact perturbation analysis, followed by combination and partial solution of differential equations, the complete nonlinear quenching of current fluctuations reported by Hide in the case that a parameter ε has the value 1 is proved via the Popov theorem from feedback system stability theory.

Description: We consider particle motion in nonautonomous 1 degree of freedom Hamiltonian systems for which H(p,q,t) depends on N periodic functions of t with incommensurable frequencies. It is shown that in near-integrable systems of this type, phase space is partitioned into nonintersecting regular and chaotic regions. In this respect there is no different between the N = 1 (periodic time dependence) and the N = 2, 3, ... (quasi-periodic time dependence) problems. An important consequence of this phase space structure is that the mechanism that leads to fractal properties of chaotic trajectories in systems with N = 1 also applies to the larger class of problems treated here. Implications of the results presented to studies of ray dynamics in two-dimensional incompressible fluid flows are discussed.