Climate Mathematics
Theory and Applications

Presents the core mathematics, statistics, and programming skills needed for modern climate science courses, with online teaching materials.

Samuel S. P. Shen (Author), Richard C. J. Somerville (Author)

9781108476874, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 September 2019

456 pages, 33 b/w illus. 121 colour illus. 7 tables 137 exercises
25.4 x 20 x 2.4 cm, 1.07 kg

'This book provides a timely introduction to the mathematical approaches and statistical techniques that students will need to understand climate change and how to respond to its impacts. I especially like how it gets students into using the important programming capabilities of R and Python to do such analyses. Climate Mathematics is a wonderful resource - one I will use myself and recommend to all of our students.' Donald J. Wuebbles, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

This unique text provides a thorough, yet accessible, grounding in the mathematics, statistics, and programming that students need to master for coursework and research in climate science, meteorology, and oceanography. Assuming only high school mathematics, it presents carefully selected concepts and techniques in linear algebra, statistics, computing, calculus and differential equations within the context of real climate science examples. Computational techniques are integrated to demonstrate how to visualize, analyze, and apply climate data, with R code featured in the book and both R and Python code available online. Exercises are provided at the end of each chapter with selected solutions available to students to aid self-study and further solutions provided online for instructors only. Additional online supplements to aid classroom teaching include datasets, images, and animations. Guidance is provided on how the book can support a variety of courses at different levels, making it a highly flexible text for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers and professional climate scientists who need to refresh or modernize their quantitative skills.

1. Dimensional analysis for climate science
2. Basics of R programming
3. Basic statistical methods for climate data analysis
4. Climate data matrices and linear algebra
5. Energy balance models for climate
6. Calculus applications to climate science I: derivatives
7. Calculus applications to climate science II: integrals
8. Conservation laws in climate dynamics
9. R graphics for climate science
10. Advanced R analysis and plotting EOFs, trends, and global data
11. R analysis of incomplete climate data
Appendix A. Dot product of two vectors
Appendix B. Cross product of two vectors
Appendix C. Spherical coordinates
Appendix D. Calculus concepts and methods
Appendix E. Sample solutions to the climate mathematics exercises.

Subject Areas: Meteorology & climatology [RBP], Atmospheric physics [PHVJ]