Principles of Planetary Climate
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Har/Psc, 12/2/2010
EAN 9780521865562, ISBN10: 0521865565
Hardcover, 674 pages, 24.6 x 18.9 x 3.6 cm
Language: English
This book introduces the reader to all the basic physical building blocks of climate needed to understand the present and past climate of Earth, the climates of Solar System planets, and the climates of extrasolar planets. These building blocks include thermodynamics, infrared radiative transfer, scattering, surface heat transfer and various processes governing the evolution of atmospheric composition. Nearly four hundred problems are supplied to help consolidate the reader's understanding, and to lead the reader towards original research on planetary climate. This textbook is invaluable for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students in atmospheric science, Earth and planetary science, astrobiology, and physics. It also provides a superb reference text for researchers in these subjects, and is very suitable for academic researchers trained in physics or chemistry who wish to rapidly gain enough background to participate in the excitement of the new research opportunities opening in planetary climate.
Preface
1. The big questions
2. Thermodynamics in a nutshell
3. Elementary models of radiation balance
4. Radiative transfer in temperature-stratified atmospheres
5. Scattering
6. The surface energy balance
7. Variation of temperature with season and latitude
8. Evolution of the atmosphere
9. A peek at dynamics
Appendix. Notation
Index.
'The words 'original' and 'textbook' don't often go together, but I think it is appropriate to use them both when describing this book. Ray Pierrehumbert has written a book that travels from the fundamentals to the complexities of the climate system as a whole, in a clear and logical fashion, covering not just the planet Earth but the principles underlying the climates of planets more generally. There is no other book quite like it.' Dr Geoffrey K. Vallis, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab, Princeton University and author of Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics