  In problems where the temporal evolution of a nonlinear system cannot be
followed, a method for studying the fluctuations of spatial patterns has been
developed. That method is applied to well-known problems in deterministic chaos
(the logistic map and the Lorenz model) to check its effectiveness in
characterizing the dynamical behaviors. It is found that the indices $\mu _q$
are as useful as the Lyapunov exponents in providing a quantitative measure of
chaos.
