干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The application of a principle of Maximum Entropy Production (MEP, or less ambiguously MaxEP) to planetary climate is discussed. This idea suggests that if sufficiently free of dynamical constraints, the atmospheric and oceanic heat flows across a planet may conspire to maximize the generation of mechanical work, or entropy. Thermodynamic and information-theoretic aspects of this idea are discussed. These issues are also discussed in the context of dust devils, convective vortices found in strongly-heated desert areas.