Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics: Fundamentals and Large-scale Circulation

Geoffrey K. Vallis

Nov 2006 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

Fluid dynamics is fundamental to our understanding of the atmosphere and oceans. Although many of the same principles of fluid dynamics apply to both the atmosphere and oceans, textbooks tend to concentrate on the atmosphere, the ocean, or the theory of geophysical fluid dynamics (GFD). This textbook provides a comprehensive unified treatment of atmospheric and oceanic fluid dynamics. The book introduces the fundamentals of geophysical fluid dynamics, including rotation and stratification, vorticity and potential vorticity, and scaling and approximations. It discusses baroclinic and barotropic instabilities, wave-mean flow interactions and turbulence, and the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean. Student problems and exercises are included at the end of each chapter. Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics: Fundamentals and Large-Scale Circulation will be an invaluable graduate textbook on advanced courses in GFD, meteorology, atmospheric science and oceanography, and an excellent review volume for researchers. Additional resources are available at www.cambridge.org/9780521849692.

About the author

Geoffrey K. Vallis is a senior scientist and professor in the Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University. He is also an associate faculty member at the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics, and a former professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Until recently he was editor of the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. His research interests include the general circulation of the ocean and atmosphere, turbulence theory, and climate dynamics. He has taught a wide range of topics at Princeton and the University of California, and he has published extensively in both the oceanographic and meteorological literature.