Entropy Flow and the Evolution of the Atmospheric Systems
熵流与大气系统的演变

More attention has been paid to the ultimate result of the evolution of the earth's atmosphere,as is originating from the facts of the global warming and trends of extreme weather and climate events towards violence that might directly influence the future vivosphere for the human rate.The theory of dissipative structures created by I.Prigogine(1955) points out that an open system will be driven further from equilibrium by negative entropy flow entering into it and,early in the 1940s,E.Schrdinger(1992) mentioned in his monograph "What Is Life?" that life's existence depends on its continuous gain of "negentropy" from its surroundings,suggesting that negative entropy is something very positive for structural creation and evolution within a thermodynamic system.However,the effect of negative entropy flow on the evolution of the atmospheric systems is unknown.Here the authors show that entropy flow diagnosis is a powerful tool in understanding the mechanism responsible for the atmospheric ordered systems.Based on the observational data,the authors found that the numbers of severe weather events such as tornados,high winds and hails are dramatically increased in some regions,e.g.the United States,for recent 50 years and more,and revealed,using the entropy flow formula derived in this paper,that the growth of the devastating Typhoon Matsa(2005),as an example of the ordered systems,relies greatly upon the negative entropy flow from its environment.The former suggests that the earth's atmosphere will be more and more organized with extreme weather processes caused frequently within it and,the latter suggests that the entropy flow methodology might be generalized to the other relevant fields to discuss the life-cycle of an ordered system,whether it is living or nonliving,from the point of view of "panmerism".