Climate Analysis

Explains how climatologists have come to understand current climate variability and trends through analysis of observations, datasets and models.

Chester F. Ropelewski (Author), Phillip A. Arkin (Author)

9780521896160, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 January 2019

362 pages, 38 b/w illus. 14 maps
25.3 x 16.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.94 kg

'It is written by two highly qualified authors who have made substantive contributions to climate science … an accessible survey and a useful addition to the literature; the information contained is well organized.' S. C. Pryor, Choice

Sensational images and stories about variations in Earth's climate and their impacts on society are pervasive in the media. The scientific basis for these stories is often not understood by the general public, nor even by those with a scientific background in fields other than climate science. This book is a comprehensive resource that will enable the reader to understand and appreciate the significance of the flood of climate information. It is an excellent non-mathematical resource for learning the fundamentals of climate analysis, as well as a reference for non-climate experts that need to use climate information and data. The focus is on the basics of the climate system, how climate is observed and how the observations are transformed into datasets useful for monitoring the climate. Each chapter contains Discussion Questions. This is an invaluable textbook on climate analysis for advanced students, and a reference textbook for researchers and practitioners.

Foreword Antonio J. Busalacchi, Jr
Preface
List of abbreviations and acronyms
1. Earth's climate system
2. Climate analysis: goals and methods
3. Climate analysis: atmospheric instruments, observations, and datasets
4. Climate variability
5. Climate change
6. Temperature: building climate datasets
7. Precipitation: combining in-situ and remotely-sensed observations in constructing climate datasets
8. Ocean climate datasets
9. Cryosphere
10. Land component of the climate system
11. Climate models as information sources and analysis tools
12. Operational climate monitoring and prediction
Appendix A. A short guide to some statistics used in climate analysis
Appendix B. Vorticity/divergence, stream function/velocity potential
Appendix C. Preliminary examination of the data
Appendix D. Components of the mean water budget
Glossary
References
Index.

Subject Areas: The environment [RN], Meteorology & climatology [RBP], Earth sciences [RB]