Description
Book SynopsisThis is a graduate-level textbook on the global circulation of the Earth's atmosphere--the large-scale system of winds by which energy is transported around the planet, from the tropical latitudes to the poles. Written by David Randall, one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, it is the most comprehensive textbook on the topic. Intended
Trade Review"The book is well organized, progresses logically, and includes a basic analytical analysis for observed conditions whenever possible. Particularly valuable are the lucid physical explanations of the implications of the mathematical relations."--Choice
Table of ContentsPreface vii Handy Numbers ix Chapter 1 Perpetual Motion 1 Chapter 2 What Makes It Go? 12 Chapter 3 First Impressions 33 Chapter 4 The Rules of the Game 67 Chapter 5 Go with the Flow 106 Chapter 6 Up Moist, Down Dry 145 Chapter 7 Heat Where It's Hot, and Cool Where It's Cold 182 Chapter 8 A Taxonomy of Eddies 211 Chapter 9 What the Eddies Do 280 Chapter 10 A Fluid Dynamical Commotion 310 Chapter 11 The Future of the Circulation 352 Appendix A Vectors, Vector Calculus, and Coordinate Systems 357 Appendix B Dimensional Analysis, Scale Analysis, and Similarity Theories 365 Appendix C Why Is the Dissipation Rate Positive? 375 Appendix D Vertical Coordinate Transformations 378 Appendix E The Moist Adiabatic Lapse Rate 380 Appendix F Eddy Kinetic Energy and Zonal Kinetic Energy 383 Appendix G Spherical Harmonics 389 Appendix H Hermite Polynomials 396 Bibliography 399 Index 437
