Articles | Volume 26, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-12543-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-12543-2026
Research article
 | 
04 Sep 2026
Research article |  | 04 Sep 2026

A cellular automaton model of tropical oceanic rain clusters with criticality

Kevin K. W. Cheung, Chee-Kiat Teo, and Tieh-Yong Koh

Model code and software

kkwc26-cyber/Rain-CA: v1.0.0 kkwc26-cyber https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22088024

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Short summary
This study presents a cellular automaton (CA) model of tropical oceanic rain clusters based on atmospheric stability and gravity-wave interactions. The model reproduces power-law distributions for cluster area and rain rate, exhibiting criticality similar to 2D percolation. The scaling exponent for cluster area is robust to model parameters and matches simulations over the Indian Ocean and Atlantic, although it differs from some observational estimates, suggesting further model tuning is needed.
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