Abstract
This review provides a summary of methods originated in (non-equilibrium) statistical mechanics and information theory, which have recently found successful applications to quantitatively studying complexity in various components of the complex system Earth. Specifically, we discuss two classes of methods: (i) entropies of different kinds (e. g., on the one hand classical Shannon and Renyi entropies, as well as non-extensive Tsallis entropy based on symbolic dynamics techniques and, on the other hand, approximate entropy, sample entropy and fuzzy entropy); and (ii) measures of statistical interdependence and causality (e. g., mutual information and generalizations thereof, transfer entropy, momentary information transfer). We review a number of applications and case studies utilizing the above-mentioned methodological approaches for studying contemporary problems in some exemplary fields of the Earth sciences, highlighting the potentials of different techniques.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4844-4888 |
| Number of pages | 45 |
| Journal | Entropy |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 7 Nov 2013 |
Keywords
- entropy measures
- symbolic dynamics
- non-extensive statistical mechanics
- causality
- Earth sciences
- self-organized criticality
- time-series analysis
- holocene climate variability
- El-Nino/Southern-Oscillation
- Nino-Southern-Oscillation
- magnetic-field topology
- low-dimensional chaos
- electromagnetic emissions
- recurrence plots
- permutation entropy
Access to Document
- entropy-15-04844
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