We study numerically the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation forced by external white noise in two space dimensions, that is a generic model for, e.g., surface kinetic roughening in the presence of morphological instabilities. Large scale simulations using a pseudospectral numerical scheme allow us to retrieve Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) scaling as the asymptotic state of the system, as in the one-dimensional (1D) case. However, this is only the case for sufficiently large values of the coupling and/or system size, so that previous conclusions on non-KPZ asymptotics are demonstrated as finite size effects. Crossover effects are comparatively stronger for the two-dimensional case than for the 1D system.

• Received 23 July 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.82.045202