| Abstract: | We provide mathematical justification of the emergence of large‐scale coherent structure in a two‐dimensional fluid system under small‐scale random bombardments with small forcing and appropriate scaling assumptions. The analysis shows that the large‐scale structure emerging out of the small‐scale random forcing is not the one predicted by equilibrium statistical mechanics. But the error is very small, which explains earlier successful prediction of the large‐scale structure based on equilibrium statistical mechanics. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
