SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL AVERAGES IN CHAOTIC PATTERNS

We show that spatiotemporally complex patterns in the presence of a sy mmetry imposed by the container geometry can have ordered spatial and temporal averages. The system studied was the Kuppers-Lortz unstable s tate in rotating thermal convection. As the control parameter DELTAT w as increased above onset, fluctuations about the ordered averaged stat e increased and the correlation of individual patterns with the averag ed state decreased. The pattern fluctuations about the averaged state were highly correlated with the instantaneous heat transport fluctuati ons.