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Science 9 April 1982:
Vol. 216. no. 4542, pp. 185 - 187
DOI: 10.1126/science.216.4542.185
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Articles

Area-Perimeter Relation for Rain and Cloud Areas

S. LOVEJOY 1

1 Centre de Recherches Atmosphériques de Magny les Hameaux, 78470 Saint Remy les Chevreuse, France

Following Mandelbrot's theory of fractals, the area-perimeter relation is used to investigate the geometry of satellite- and radar-determined cloud and rain areas between 1 and 1.2 x 106 square kilometers. The data are well fit by a formula in which the perimeter is given approximately by the square root of the area raised to the power D [See equation in the PDF], where D is interpreted as the fractal dimension of the perimeter. It is concluded that rain and cloud perimeters are fractals—they have no characteristic horizontal length scale between 1 and 1000 kilometers.

Submitted on August 4, 1981
Revised on December 30, 1981


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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