We propose efficient Eulerian methods for approximating the finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE). The idea is to compute the related flow map using the Level Set Method and the Liouville equation. There are several advantages of the proposed approach. Unlike the usual Lagrangian-type computations, the resulting method requires the velocity field defined only at discrete locations. No interpolation of the velocity field is needed. Also, the method automatically stops a particle trajectory in the case when the ray hits the boundary of the computational domain. The computational complexity of the algorithm is <i>O</i>(<i>x</i>^(<i>d</i>+1)) with <i>d</i> the dimension of the physical space. Since there are the same number of mesh points in the <i>x</i><i>t</i> space, the computational complexity of the proposed Eulerian approach is optimal in the sense that each grid point is visited for only <i>O</i>(1) time. We also extend the algorithm to compute the FTLE

Nonlinear matrix equations are encountered in many applications of control and engineering problems. In this work, we establish a complete study for a class of nonlinear matrix equations. With the aid of Sherman Morrison Woodbury formula, we have shown that any equation in this class has the maximal positive definite solution under a certain condition. Furthermore, A thorough study of properties about this class of matrix equations is provided. An acceleration of iterative method with R-superlinear convergence with order $r>1$ is then designed to solve the maximal positive definite solution efficiently.

In this paper, we consider the time-dependent Maxwell’s equations when Cole–Cole dispersive medium is involved. The Cole–Cole model contains a fractional time derivative term, which couples with the standard Maxwell’s equations in free space and creates some challenges in developing and analyzing time-domain finite element methods for solving this model as mentioned in our earlier work [J. Li, J. Sci. Comput., 47 (2001), pp. 1–26]. By adopting some techniques developed for the fractional diffusion equations [V.J. Ervin, N. Heuer, and J.P. Roop, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 45 (2007), pp. 572–591], [Y. Lin and C. Xu, J. Comput. Phys., 225 (2007), pp. 1533–1552], [F. Liu, P. Zhuang, V. Anh, I. Turner, and K. Burrage, Appl. Math. Comput., 191 (2007), pp. 12–20], we propose two fully discrete mixed finite element schemes for the Cole–Cole model. Numerical stability and optimal error estimates are proved for both schemes. The proposed algorithms are implemented and detailed numerical results are provided to justify our theoretical analysis.

A new residual-based stabilized finite element method is analyzed for solving the Stokes equations in terms of velocity and pressure, where the $H^{−1}$ norm is introduced in the measurement of the residuals to obtain a symmetric positive definite (SPD) method. The $H^{−1}$ norm is computable and can be always easily realized offline by the continuous linear finite element solution or the preconditioned counterpart of the Poisson Dirichlet problem. Although the $H^{−1}$ norm is computed in the linear element space, no matter what the finite element spaces for the velocity and the pressure are, optimal error bounds can be established when using continuous finite element pairs $R_l$−$R_m$ for velocity and pressure for any $l, m\ge 1$. Numerical experiments are performed to confirm the theoretical results obtained.

Atmospheric temperature is one of the most important climate variables. This observational study presents detailed descriptions of the temperature variability imprinted in the 9-year brightness temperature data acquired by the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit- Instrument A (AMSU-A) aboard Aqua since September 2002 over tropical oceans. A non-linear, adaptive method called the Ensemble Joint Multiple Extraction has been employed to extract the principal modes of variability in the AMSU-A/Aqua data. The semi-annual, annual, quasibiennial oscillation (QBO) modes and QBO–annual beat in the troposphere and the stratosphere have been successfully recovered. The modulation by the El Nin˜o/Southern oscillation (ENSO) in the troposphere was found and correlates well with the Multivariate ENSO Index. The longterm variations during 2002–2011 reveal a cooling trend (-0.5 K/decade at 10 hPa) in the tropical stratosphere; the trend below the tropical tropopause is not statistically significant due to the length of our data. A new tropospheric near-annual mode (period *1.6 years) was also revealed in the troposphere, whose existence was confirmed using National Centers for Environmental Prediction Reanalysis air temperature data. The near-annual mode in the troposphere is found to prevail in the eastern Pacific region and is coherent with a near-annual mode in the observed sea surface temperature over the Warm Pool region that has previously been reported. It remains a challenge for climate models to simulate the trends and principal modes of natural variability reported in this work.