Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 May 2009
Due to the non-commutation of spatial averaging and temporal evolution, inhomogeneities and anisotropies (cosmic structures) influence the evolution of the averaged Universe via the cosmological backreaction mechanism. We study the backreaction effect as a function of averaging scale in a perturbative approach up to higher orders. We calculate the hierarchy of the critical scales, at which 10% effects show up from averaging at different orders, observable up to scales of 200 Mpc. The cosmic variance of the local Hubble rate is 10% (5%) for spherical regions of radius 40 (60) Mpc. We compare our results to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Key Project data.