Review article: Dynamical systems, algebraic topology and the climate sciences

Author:

Ghil MichaelORCID,Sciamarella DenisseORCID

Abstract

Abstract. The definition of climate itself cannot be given without a proper understanding of the key ideas of long-term behavior of a system, as provided by dynamical systems theory. Hence, it is not surprising that concepts and methods of this theory have percolated into the climate sciences as early as the 1960s. The major increase in public awareness of the socio-economic threats and opportunities of climate change has led more recently to two major developments in the climate sciences: (i) the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's successive Assessment Reports and (ii) an increasing understanding of the interplay between natural climate variability and anthropogenically driven climate change. Both of these developments have benefited from remarkable technological advances in computing resources, relating throughput as well as storage, and in observational capabilities, regarding both platforms and instruments. Starting with the early contributions of nonlinear dynamics to the climate sciences, we review here the more recent contributions of (a) the theory of non-autonomous and random dynamical systems to an understanding of the interplay between natural variability and anthropogenic climate change and (b) the role of algebraic topology in shedding additional light on this interplay. The review is thus a trip leading from the applications of classical bifurcation theory to multiple possible climates to the tipping points associated with transitions from one type of climatic behavior to another in the presence of time-dependent forcing, deterministic as well as stochastic.

Funder

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Publisher

Copernicus GmbH

Subject

General Medicine

Cited by 1 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3