  We consider the failure of localized control in a nonlinear spatially
extended system caused by extremely small amounts of noise. It is shown that
this failure occurs as a result of a nonlinear instability. Nonlinear
instabilities can occur in systems described by linearly stable but strongly
nonnormal evolution operators. In spatially extended systems the nonnormality
manifests itself in two different but complementary ways: transient
amplification and spectral focusing of disturbances. We show that temporal and
spatial aspects of the nonnormality and the type of nonlinearity are all
crucially important to understanding and describing the mechanism of nonlinear
instability. Presented results are expected to apply equally to other physical
systems where strong nonnormality is due to the presence of mean flow rather
than the action of control.

Pattern Formation and Solitons