Lists citations with abstracts for aerospace related reports obtained from world wide sources and announces documents that have recently been entered into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Database.

Fans of "Asterix the Gallic" know well that the only fear of people in Brittany is that the sky falls upon their head. So it must have been a shock for them (the fans of Asterix) to learn that a horde of Physicists and Dynamicists (some of them being actually Roman - ils sont fous ces Romains!) invaded the bay of Saint-Brieuc and spend a full week conjuring all the nastiness that the sky has in reserve, revelling in the horrors hidden beyond the blue dome; they talked with delight about "asteroids", "comets" and "meteor streams"; they grinned at the idea of "artificial satellites", these pots and pans of space always ready to fall upon you; some of them said strange things about the Moon, the planets, and evoked the "rings" of Saturn or of some other of their gods. One evening, a Roman from Pisa went as far as cornering some inhabitants in the large hut they used for their witchcraft and filled them with terror by describing the fate of the poor dinosaurs victims of a particularly nasty asteroid (or was it a comet?). You will be surprized to learn that Bretons did not exact a spectacular revenge for these offenses. On the contrary.

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

Visualizing Weather and Climate Change will capture the reader's interest in weather and climate and then use that interest to engage them in activities that demonstrate the science that serves as the basis of the discipline. Sections such as Eye on the Atmosphere use beautiful imagery to help them see the atmosphere through the eyes of a meteorologist and ask scientific questions that place significant features in atmospheric context. It also includes expanded coverage of global change and recent phenomena. Chapter summaries, self-tests and critical thinking questions help prepare readers for quizzes and tests while the illustrated case studies offer a wide variety of in-depth examinations that address important issues in the field of environmental science.

The Quaternary has been a period of major climatic and environmental oscillations, and our knowledge of these past variations is important for our understanding of the possible impact of human activity on the present-day environment. First published in 1999, Quaternary Climates, Environments and Magnetism presents an account of the rich variety of uses of magnetic measurements in the environmental geosciences. Ten chapters by leading world authorities describe the highlights of environmental magnetic work during the last decade and identify directions for future research. Emphasis is placed on a multidisciplinary approach to achieve a more thorough understanding of the environmental processes involved. This volume will be of interest to research scientists from a wide range of disciplines working on Quaternary environments, including earth and environmental sciences, physical geology, geography and palaeoclimatology. It will also be valuable as a supplementary text for graduates and advanced undergraduates.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, Palisades, New York, U.S.A., November 30-December 4, 1982

Natural Decadal Climate Variability: Societal Impacts is an important work for understanding the natural decadal climate variability (DCV), a phenomenon which has made long lasting impacts on civilizations, especially on water availability and agriculture. This book comprehensively covers multiyear to decadal variations in instrument measured precipitation and temperature, water availability and river flows, crop production, agricultural irrigation, inland water-borne transportation, hydroelectricity generation, and fish and crustacean captures since the 1960s. A longer term perspective is provided with the use of multi-century data on dry and wet epochs based on tree ring information, and corroborating evidence from other literature. This valuable work will benefit climate scientists, meteorologists, hydrologists, agronomists, water transportation planners, resource economists, policymakers, professors, and graduate students and anyone else who has an interest in learning how natural climate phenomena has influenced societies for at least the past 1000 years.