@article{ZhouKurths2004, author = {Zhou, Changsong and Kurths, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Resonant patterns in noisy active media}, issn = {1063-651X}, year = {2004}, abstract = {We investigate noise-controlled resonant response of active media to weak periodic forcing, both in excitable and oscillatory regimes. In the excitable regime, we find that noise-induced irregular wave structures can be reorganized into frequency-locked resonant patterns by weak signals with suitable frequencies. The resonance occurs due to a matching condition between the signal frequency and the noise-induced inherent time scale of the media. m:1 resonant regions similar to the Arnold tongues in frequency locking of self-sustained oscillatory media are observed. In the self-sustained oscillatory regime, noise also controls the oscillation frequency and reshapes significantly the Arnold tongues. The combination of noise and weak signal thus could provide an efficient tool to manipulate active extended systems in experiments}, language = {en} } @article{GamezZhouTimmermannetal.2004, author = {Gamez, A. J. and Zhou, Changsong and Timmermann, A. and Kurths, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Nonlinear dimensionality reduction in climate data}, issn = {1023-5809}, year = {2004}, abstract = {Linear methods of dimensionality reduction are useful tools for handling and interpreting high dimensional data. However, the cumulative variance explained by each of the subspaces in which the data space is decomposed may show a slow convergence that makes the selection of a proper minimum number of subspaces for successfully representing the variability of the process ambiguous. The use of nonlinear methods can improve the embedding of multivariate data into lower dimensional manifolds. In this article, a nonlinear method for dimensionality reduction, Isomap, is applied to the sea surface temperature and thermocline data in the tropical Pacific Ocean, where the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon and the annual cycle phenomena interact. Isomap gives a more accurate description of the manifold dimensionality of the physical system. The knowledge of the minimum number of dimensions is expected to improve the development of low dimensional models for understanding and predicting ENSO}, language = {en} }