Atmosphere, Clouds, and Climate

by Randall, David

• ISBN13: 9780691143750
• ISBN10: 0691143757
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-16
• Publisher: Ingram Publisher Services, Inc.

Summary

The atmosphere is critical to climate change. It can amplify shifts in the climate system, and also mitigate them. This primer offers a short, reader-friendly introduction to these atmospheric processes and how they work, written by a leading expert on the subject. Giving readers an overview of key atmospheric processes, David Randall looks at how our climate system receives energy from the sun and sheds it by emitting infrared radiation back into space. The atmosphere regulates these radiative energy flows, and also transports energy through weather systems such as thunderstorms, monsoons, hurricanes, and winter storms. Randall explains how these processes work, and also how precipitation, cloud formation, and other phase changes of water strongly influence weather and climate. He discusses how atmospheric feedbacks affect climate change, how the large-scale atmospheric circulation works, how predicting the weather and the climate are fundamentally different challenges, and much more. This is the ideal introduction for students and nonspecialists. No prior experience in atmospheric science is needed, only basic college physics. Authoritative and concise, Atmosphere, Clouds, and Climatefeatures a glossary of terms, suggestions for further reading, and easy-to-follow explanations of a few key equations. This accessible primer is the essential introduction to atmospheric processes and the vital role they play in our climate system.

Author Biography

David Randall is professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Basics	p. 1
Radiative Energy Flows	p. 27
How Turbulence and Cumulus Clouds Carry Energy Upward	p. 55
Appendix to Chapter 3: More about Eddy Fluxes	p. 96
How Energy Travels from the Tropics to the Poles	p. 103
Appendix to Chapter 4: Conservation of Momentum on a Rotating Sphere	p. 134
Feedbacks	p. 140
The Water Planet	p. 160
Predictability of Weather and Climate	p. 183
Air, Sea, Land	p. 206
Frontiers	p. 227
Notes	p. 233
Glossary	p. 239
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 247
Bibliography	p. 253
Index	p. 261
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