ESS11
Prof. Jin-Yi Yu
Climate –
A Chaotic System
q In an effort to study the predictability of
weather, Edward Lorenz (a meteorology professor at MIT) started the study of “chaos” systems.
qThe weather/climate system is a nonlinear system. A small change in its initial
condition can be amplified to a huge disproportionate effect on the whole system.
qFor example, the small change caused by the flapping of the butterfly's wings in the Far
East may causes massive changes in the eventual overall behavior of the storm in the North America.