Spatial coherence resonance near pattern-forming instabilities

The phenomenon of spatial coherence resonance is presented and studied. Specifically, we show that spatiotemporal noise is able to optimally extract an intrinsic spatial scale nonlinear media close to (but before) a pattern-forming instability. This effect is observed in model of pattern-forming chemical reaction and in the Swift-Hohenberg model of fluid convection. In the latter case, the phenomenon is described analytically via an approximate approach.