Modeling geophysical complexity: geometric determinism

Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures Back Close Full Screen / Esc Papers published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions are under open-access review for the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Abstract Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures Back Close Full Screen / Esc Abstract It has been customary in the last few decades to employ stochastic models to represent complex data sets encountered in geophysics, particularly in hydrology. This article reviews a deterministic geometric procedure to data modeling, one that represents whole data sets as derived distributions of simple multifractal measures via fractal functions. 5 It is shown how such a procedure may lead to faithful holistic representations of existing geophysical data sets that, while complementing existing representations via stochas-tic methods, may also provide a compact language for geophysical complexity. The implications of these ideas, both scientific and philosophical, are stressed.