The Atmosphere: An Introduction to Meteorology, Ninth Edition (Hardcover)

by Frederick K. Lutgens (Author), Edward J. Tarbuck (Author), Dennis Tasa (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This reader-friendly book offers current and comprehensive information about the atmosphere—its components, problems, and applications. It features everyday examples to help the reader understand weather and climate, with incredible photographs, satellite images, and line art. Broad in scope and clearly and concisely written, this book features such topics as temperature, moisture and atmospheric stability, condensation and precipitation, air pressure and winds, circulation, air masses, weather patterns, thunderstorms and tornadoes, hurricanes, air pollution, world climates, and optical phenomena. For readers interested in a book that discusses up-to-date weather and climate issues that affect the world's people everyday; can also be utilized as a reference text for those in the field of meteorology and other earth sciences.

From the Publisher
Traditional in both structure and approach, this text offers a current and comprehensive introduction to the atmosphere, its components, problems, and applications. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 9 edition (June 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131015672
• ISBN-13: 978-0131015678
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #322,378 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #4 in	Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Meteorology > Applied
  #41 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Special Topics > Applied Atmospheric Sciences
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT, May 2, 2000

By	Sallie J Tremblay (Minot, Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atmosphere, The: An Introduction to Meteorology (Hardcover)

Having no college background, but a great interest in the weather, I searched high and low for a comprehensive book that would be understandable and informative. This book greatly increased my knowledge of the weather. It is a quality textbook that covers, in depth, what other books just touch on. High and low pressure systems, fronts, weather systems, trade winds, jet streams, precipitation, clouds, visual effects, measuring devices and much more. I would really love to get the next book that carries on where this one left off, but to go much farther will probably require more knowledge of math and physics. This book also gave me the desire for further learning. It's almost contagious because the information is so amazingly interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone who truly loves weather study. Completing the questions in each section really helps to hold the information gained.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A carefully written well-illustrated non-technical textbook., July 11, 1999

By	Rob Bird ([e-mail]) "rbirdrn" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atmosphere, The: An Introduction to Meteorology (Hardcover)

I am not qualified to judge the content of this evidently widely-used textbook but it seems carefully written, eg its treatment the relationship between the temperature of a parcel of air and the amount of water vapor it can carry, bearing in mind the cautions on the subject at Penn State University's "Bad Meteorology" web site. It appears to be comprehensive in scope to judge from its Table of Contents, which is comparable to that of other introdutory non-technical meteorology texts I have seen. Photographs and drawings are plentiful, clear with respect to content, and beautifully printed.

When I say "non-technical" I mean readers looking for even a rudimentary treatment of the math, physics, and chemistry of the atmosphere will be disappointed unless, for example, you consider something like a Fahrenheit/Celsius conversion formula mathematically taxing. This is the technical level intended by the authors and publisher however and not a fault of the book.

But if some aspect of meteorology should turn you on when you read about it in "The Atmosphere" expect no help from the text if you want to explore the matter further: bibliography and notes are absent. This may be an artifact of publishing economics or a (bad) judgement about the intellectual curiosity of the average college underclassman rather than an author's omission but it's inexcusable in my view, even for a high school text. It merits a two-star penalty.

If you're a non-science major taking an elective meteorology course to round out your degree requirements and this text is on the reading list you could do worse. If you have an active interest in the earth's atmosphere and the study of it, even if you don't have a background in the hard sciences, you should invest in a different text.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent text, and a super home library reference., July 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Atmosphere, The: An Introduction to Meteorology (Hardcover)

This is the textbook for a course I just took in Junior College (St. Pete, FL). Although I have many other texts and references on Weather on my shelves, The Atmosphere will take the number one spot now. The diagrams and illustrations are very good, and the Appendices are worth the cost of the book alone. Thanks, Bill Bell, St.Pete Florida 7-15-99