This book serves to deepen the theoretical understanding of mesoscale dynamics and makes its basic concepts clear, reflecting new research results. It emphasizes important theories that have not been given enough attention in recent years, such as generalized potential temperature and the moist potential vorticity theory of non-uniform saturated moist atmospheres. By integrating theory with practice, the book also introduces the forecast method of rainstorms and other disastrous weathers using dynamic factors. This book can be used as a point of reference for operational forecasters, researchers and graduate and undergraduate students whose research interests are atmospheric sciences, and ocean and water sciences. It will also be of interest to scholars who study geological disasters, such as multiphase flow, mountains, debris flows and landslides, as well as geological seismologists.

Technology has propelled the atmospheric sciences from a fledgling discipline to a global enterprise. Findings in this field shape a broad spectrum of decisions--what to wear outdoors, whether aircraft should fly, how to deal with the issue of climate change, and more. This book presents a comprehensive assessment of the atmospheric sciences and offers a vision for the future and a range of recommendations for federal authorities, the scientific community, and education administrators. How does atmospheric science contribute to national well-being? In the context of this question, the panel identifies imperatives in scientific observation, recommends directions for modeling and forecasting research, and examines management issues, including the growing problem of weather data availability. Five subdisciplines--physics, chemistry, dynamics and weather forecasting, upper atmosphere and near-earth space physics, climate and climate change--and their status as the science enters the twenty-first century are examined in detail, including recommendations for research. This readable book will be of interest to public-sector policy framers and private-sector decisionmakers as well as researchers, educators, and students in the atmospheric sciences.

Includes undergraduate and graduate courses.

Mesoscale weather systems are responsible for numerous natural disasters, such as damaging winds, blizzards and flash flooding. A fundamental understanding of the underlying dynamics involved in these weather systems is essential in forecasting their occurrence. This 2007 book provides a systematic approach to this subject. The opening chapters introduce the basic equations governing mesoscale weather systems and their approximations. The subsequent chapters cover four major areas of mesoscale dynamics: wave dynamics, moist convection, front dynamics and mesoscale modelling. This is an ideal book on the subject for researchers in meteorology and atmospheric science. With over 100 problems, and password-protected solutions available to instructors at www.cambridge.org/9780521808750, this book could also serve as a textbook for graduate students. Modelling projects, providing hands-on practice for building simple models of stratified fluid flow from a one-dimensional advection equation, are also described.

This new textbook seeks to promote a deep yet accessible understanding of mesoscale-convective processes in the atmosphere. Mesoscale-convective processes are commonly manifested in the form of thunderstorms, which are fast evolving, inherently hazardous, and can assume a broad range of sizes and severity. Modern explanations of the convective-storm dynamics, and of the related development of tornadoes, damaging 'straight-line' winds and heavy rainfall, are provided. Students and weather professionals will benefit especially from unique chapters devoted to observations and measurements of mesoscale phenomena, mesoscale prediction and predictability, and dynamical feedbacks between mesoscale-convective processes and larger-scale motions.