The Atmospheric General Circulation

An engaging, comprehensive, richly illustrated textbook about the atmospheric general circulation, relating theory to observations.

John M. Wallace (Author), David S. Battisti (Author), David W. J. Thompson (Author), Dennis L. Hartmann (Author)

9781108474245, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 April 2023

456 pages
28.6 x 22 x 2.4 cm, 1.38 kg

'This comprehensive study of the atmospheric general circulation, from the tropics to the pole, the troposphere to the stratosphere, strikes the right balance between observation, physical intuition, and theory. The authors have succeeded in producing an excellent textbook that is up-to-date, flexibly organized, and useful for multiple different classes – undoubtedly the go-to resource for experts and students alike.' Tiffany Shaw, University of Chicago

An engaging, comprehensive, richly illustrated textbook about the atmospheric general circulation, written by leading researchers in the field. The book elucidates the pervasive role of atmospheric dynamics in the Earth System, interprets the structure and evolution of atmospheric motions across a range of space and time scales in terms of fundamental theoretical principles, and includes relevant historical background and tutorials on research methodology. The book includes over 300 exercises and is accompanied by extensive online resources, including solutions manuals, an animations library, and an introduction to online visualization and analysis tools. This textbook is suitable as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate level courses in atmospheric sciences and geosciences curricula and as a reference textbook for researchers.

Part I. Background: 1. Observations and Models
2. Heuristic models of the general circulation
Part II. Balance Requirements for the General Circulation
3. The angular momentum balance
4. Mass balance of atmospheric trace constituents
5. The balance of total energy
6. The mechanical energy cycle
Part III. Dynamics of the Zonal Mean Flow: 7. Dynamics of the zonal mean flow
8. Wave-mean-flow interaction
Part IV. The Stratospheric General Circulation
9. The global circulation of the stratosphere
10. Wave-mean flow interaction in the tropical stratosphere
Part V. The Zonally Varying Extratropical Tropospheric Circulation
11. The boreal winter zonally-varying climatology
12. The high frequency extratropical transients
13. Low-frequency extratropical transients
Part VI. The Tropical General Circulation
14. The annual mean circulation of the tropics
15. Deep convection
16. The seasons in the tropics
17. El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
18. Intraseasonal variability of the tropical general circulation
19. Higher frequency tropical weather systems
20. Warm core tropical vortices
21. Diurnal and higher frequency variability of the global circulation
Appendix A. Space and time averaging operations
Appendix B. The zonal momentum balance
Appendix C. Methods of identifying teleconnection patterns
Appendix D. Scaling and application of the Weak Temperature Gradient Approximation
Appendix E. Math symbols and abbreviations
Appendix F. Extended figure captions
Appendix G. Exercise answers.

Subject Areas: Meteorology & climatology [RBP]