Abstract:
This paper will recall the work of Klaus Hasselmann, a German scientist who won the 2021 Nobel Prize in physics, from the perspective of the development of nonequilibrium statistical physics. Based on Brownian motion theory, he established a stochastic climate model to describe the long-term evolution of climate, as influenced by meteorological weather conditions. He also proposed an optimal fingerprint method to identify the influence of human activity and local natural variability on climate, a complex system. Hasselman’ s work was essentially a successful application of theoretical physics to complex systems. The physical method he used, Brownian motion theory, was well developed by Ming-Chen Wang, who was an outstanding Chinese female physicist, and George Eugene Uhlenbeck in the 1940s based on the work of Albert Einstein
1,2. This paper will briefly describe the development of Brownian motion theory and the related contemporary progress of non-equilibrium statistical physics. It will be shown how Hasselman applied the relevant theories to the practical application of long-term climate prediction: (1) He established the theory that the fluctuation of the rapidly changing local weather variables affects the slowly changing global climate variables through the fluctuation-dissipation relationship; (2) He found the key factors of local“noise”and external driving forces that are crucial in affecting climate evolution through the optimal fingerprint method.