Gravity waves exist in all types of geophysical fluids, such as lakes, oceans, and atmospheres. They play an important role in redistributing energy at disturbances, such as mountains or seamounts and they are routinely studied in meteorology and oceanography, particularly simulation models, atmospheric weather models, turbulence, air pollution, and climate research. An Introduction to Atmospheric Gravity Waves provides readers with a working background of the fundamental physics and mathematics of gravity waves, and introduces a wide variety of applications and numerous recent advances. Nappo provides a concise volume on gravity waves with a lucid discussion of current observational techniques and instrumentation. Foreword is written by Prof. George Chimonas, a renowned expert on the interactions of gravity waves with turbulence. CD containing real data, computer codes for data analysis and linear gravity wave models included with the text

A study of the fundamental theory of waves appropriate for first year graduate students in oceanography, meteorology and associated sciences. Starting with an elementary overview of the basic wave concept, specific wave phenomena are then examined, including: surface gravity waves, internal gravity waves, lee waves, waves in the presence of rotation, and geostrophic adjustment. Each wave topic is used to introduce either a new technique or concept in general wave theory. Emphasis is placed on connectivity between the various subjects and on the physical interpretation of the mathematical results. The book contains numerous exercises at the end of the respective chapters.

A compact yet comprehensive self-study guide that explores the power of mathematics to help us understand complex atmospheric phenomena.

Written by a leading specialist in the area of atmosphere/ocean science (AOS), the book presents an excellent introduction to this important topic. The goals of these lecture notes, based on courses presented by the author at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, are to introduce mathematicians to the fascinating and important area of atmosphere/ocean science (AOS) and, conversely, to develop a mathematical viewpoint on basic topics in AOS of interest to the disciplinary AOS community, ranging from graduate students to researchers. The lecture notes emphasize the serendipitous connections between applied mathematics and geophysical flows in the style of modern applied mathematics, where rigorous mathematical analysis as well as asymptotic, qualitative, and numerical modeling all interact to ease the understanding of physical phenomena. Reading these lecture notes does not require a previous course in fluid dynamics, although a serious reader should supplement these notes with material such The book is intended for graduate students and researchers working in interdisciplinary areas between mathematics and AOS. It is excellent for supplementary course reading or independent study.

Prior to the space age, meteorologists rarely paid particular attention to the height regions above the tropopause. What was known about the upper atmosphere above about 100 km came essentially from ionospheric and geomagnetic research. The region in between, presently known as the middle atmosphere, was almost terra incognita above the height reachable by balloons. It was space research that allowed for the first time direct access to middle and upper atmospheric heights. About 40 years ago, Sidney Chapman coined a new word 'aeronomy' to describe the study of these two height regions. When asked about the difference between aeronomy and meteorology, he allegedly replied: 'it is the same as between astronomy and astrology' . This mild irony indicates the preferred prejudice of many ionospheric physicists and geomagneticians in those days toward meteorology as a descriptive rather than an exact science, in spite of the presence of such giants as Carl Rossby and Hans Ertel.

Develops a fresh mathematical approach to coronal seismology, explaining oscillatory phenomena by drawing upon original research and complex modelling techniques.

After every major earthquake, the Earth rings like a bell for several days. These free oscillations of the Earth and the related propagating body and surface waves are routinely detected at broad-band seismographic stations around the world. In this book, F. A. Dahlen and Jeroen Tromp present an advanced theoretical treatment of global seismology, describing the normal-mode, body-wave, and surface-wave methods employed in the determination of the Earth's three-dimensional internal structure and the source mechanisms of earthquakes. The authors provide a survey of both the history of global seismological research and the major theoretical and observational advances made in the past decade. The book is divided into three parts. In the first, "Foundations," Dahlen and Tromp give an extensive introduction to continuum mechanics and discuss the representation of seismic sources and the free oscillations of a completely general Earth model. The resulting theory should provide the basis for future scientific discussions of the elastic-gravitational deformation of the Earth. The second part, "The Spherical Earth," is devoted to the free oscillations of a spherically symmetric Earth. In the third part, "The Aspherical Earth," the authors discuss methods of dealing with the Earth's three-dimensional heterogeneity. The book is concerned primarily with the forward problem of global seismology--detailing how synthetic seismograms and spectra may be calculated and interpreted. As a long-needed unification of theories in global seismology, the book will be important to graduate students and to professional seismologists, geodynamicists, and geomagnetists, as well as to astronomers who study the free oscillations of the Sun and other stars.

Stratospheric processes play a signi?cant role in regulating the weather and c- mate of the Earth system. Solar radiation, which is the primary source of energy for the tropospheric weather systems, is absorbed by ozone when it passes through the stratosphere, thereby modulating the solar-forcing energy reaching into the t- posphere. The concentrations of the radiatively sensitive greenhouse gases present in the lower atmosphere, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone, control the radiation balance of the atmosphere by the two-way interaction between the stratosphere and troposphere. The stratosphere is the transition region which interacts with the weather s- tems in the lower atmosphere and the richly ionized upper atmosphere. Therefore, this part of the atmosphere provides a long list of challenging scienti?c problems of basic nature involving its thermal structure, energetics, composition, dynamics, chemistry, and modeling. The lower stratosphere is very much linked dynamically, radiatively,and chemically with the upper troposphere,even though the temperature characteristics of these regions are different. The stratosphere is a region of high stability, rich in ozone and poor in water - por and temperature increases with altitude. The lower stratospheric ozone absorbs the harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun and protects life on the Earth. On the other hand, the troposphere has high concentrations of water vapor, is low in ozone, and temperature decreases with altitude. The convective activity is more in the troposphere than in the stratosphere.

The study of internal gravity waves provides many challenges: they move along interfaces as well as in fully three-dimensional space, at relatively fast temporal and small spatial scales, making them difficult to observe and resolve in weather and climate models. Solving the equations describing their evolution poses various mathematical challenges associated with singular boundary value problems and large amplitude dynamics. This book provides the first comprehensive treatment of the theory for small and large amplitude internal gravity waves. Over 120 schematics, numerical simulations and laboratory images illustrate the theory and mathematical techniques, and 130 exercises enable the reader to apply their understanding of the theory. This is an invaluable single resource for academic researchers and graduate students studying the motion of waves within the atmosphere and ocean, and also mathematicians, physicists and engineers interested in the properties of propagating, growing and breaking waves.