An Introduction to Atmospheric Physics

A quantitative introduction to the Earth's atmosphere for intermediate-advanced undergraduate and graduate students, with an emphasis on underlying physical principles. This edition has been brought completely up-to-date, and now includes a new chapter on the physics of climate change which builds upon material introduced in earlier chapters, giving the student a broad understanding of some of the physical concepts underlying this most important and topical subject. In contrast to many other books on atmospheric science, the emphasis is on the underlying physics. Atmospheric applications are developed mainly in the problems given at the end of each chapter. The book is an essential resource for all students of atmospheric physics as part of an atmospheric science, meteorology, physics, Earth science, planetary science, or applied mathematics course.

Preface to the Second Edition	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The atmosphere as a physical system	p. 1
Atmospheric models	p. 3
Two simple atmospheric models	p. 4
Some atmospheric observations	p. 7
Weather and climate	p. 17
Further reading	p. 18
Atmospheric thermodynamics	p. 19
The ideal gas law	p. 19
Atmospheric composition	p. 20
Hydrostatic balance	p. 22
Entropy and potential temperature	p. 24
Parcel concepts	p. 26
The available potential energy	p. 30
Moisture in the atmosphere	p. 32
The saturated adiabatic lapse rate	p. 37
The tephigram	p. 40
Cloud formation	p. 42
Further reading	p. 48
Problems	p. 48
Atmospheric radiation	p. 52
Basic physical concepts	p. 52
The radiative-transfer equation	p. 57
Basic spectroscopy of molecules	p. 63
Transmittance	p. 69
Absorption by atmospheric gases	p. 71
Heating rates	p. 75
The greenhouse effect revisited	p. 81
A simple model of scattering	p. 86
Further reading	p. 88
Problems	p. 89
Basic fluid dynamics	p. 94
Mass conservation	p. 94
The material derivative	p. 95
An alternative form of the continuity equation	p. 98
The equation of state for the atmosphere	p. 99
The Navier-Stokes equation	p. 99
Rotating frames of reference	p. 102
Equations of motion in coordinate form	p. 104
Geostrophic and hydrostatic approximations	p. 107
Pressure coordinates and geopotential	p. 111
The thermodynamic energy equation	p. 113
Further reading	p. 114
Problems	p. 114
Further atmospheric fluid dynamics	p. 119
Vorticity and potential vorticity	p. 119
The Boussinesq approximation	p. 122
Quasi-geostrophic motion	p. 125
Gravity waves	p. 128
Rossby waves	p. 132
Boundary layers	p. 136
Instability	p. 141
Further reading	p. 147
Problems	p. 147
Stratospheric chemistry	p. 151
Thermodynamics of chemical reactions	p. 151
Chemical kinetics	p. 153
Bimolecular reactions	p. 155
Photo-dissociation	p. 157
Stratospheric ozone	p. 158
The transport of chemicals	p. 161
The Antarctic ozone hole	p. 164
Further reading	p. 168
Problems	p. 168
Atmospheric remote sounding	p. 171
Atmospheric observations	p. 171
Atmospheric remote sounding from space	p. 172
Atmospheric remote sounding from the ground	p. 182
Further reading	p. 189
Problems	p. 190
Climate change	p. 195
Introduction	p. 195
An energy balance model	p. 198
Some solutions of the linearised energy balance model	p. 200
Climate feedbacks	p. 204
The radiative forcing due to an increase in carbon dioxide	p. 207
Further reading	p. 211
Problems	p. 212
Atmospheric modelling	p. 215
The hierarchy of models	p. 215
Numerical methods	p. 217
Uses of complex numerical models	p. 219
Laboratory models	p. 220
Final remarks	p. 222
Further reading	p. 224
Useful physical constants	p. 225
Derivation of the equations of motion in spherical coordinates	p. 227
References	p. 229
Index	p. 234
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An Introduction to Atmospheric Physics

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