One of the most intriguing facets of the climate system is that it exhibits variability across all temporal and spatial scales; pronounced examples are temperature and precipitation. The structure of this variability, however, is not arbitrary. Over certain spatial and temporal ranges, it can be described by scaling relationships in the form of power laws in probability density distributions and autocorrelation functions. These scaling relationships can be quantified by scaling exponents which measure how the variability changes across scales and how the intensity changes with frequency of occurrence. Scaling determines the relative magnitudes and persistence of natural climate fluctuations. Here, we review various scaling mechanisms and their relevance for the climate system. We show observational evidence of scaling and discuss the application of scaling properties and methods in trend detection, climate sensitivity analyses, and climate prediction.

中文翻译：

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跨尺度气候变异的结构

气候系统最有趣的方面之一是它在所有时间和空间尺度上都表现出变异性；明显的例子是温度和降水。然而，这种可变性的结构不是任意的。在某些空间和时间范围内，它可以通过概率密度分布和自相关函数中幂律形式的缩放关系来描述。这些标度关系可以通过标度指数来量化，标度指数衡量跨标度的可变性如何变化以及强度如何随发生频率而变化。标度决定了自然气候波动的相对幅度和持续性。在这里，我们回顾了各种缩放机制及其与气候系统的相关性。