Environmental superstatistics

Abstract

A thermodynamic device placed outdoors, or a local ecosystem, is subject to a variety of different temperatures given by short-term (daily) and long-term (seasonal) variations. In the long term a superstatistical description makes sense, with a suitable distribution function f (beta) of inverse temperature beta over which ordinary statistical mechanics is averaged. We show that f (beta) is very different at different geographic locations, and typically exhibits a double-peak structure for long-term data. For some of our data sets we also find a systematic drift due to global warming. For a simple superstatistical model system we show that the response to global warming is stronger if temperature fluctuations are taken into account. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.