Customer Reviews

Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate Dynamics: An Introductory Text (International Geophysics)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a concise, clear and holistic introduction to the subject of atmosphere, ocean and climate science. The book is written in a student-friendly manner. The authors present and develop the tools required to understand the climate system. These tools include radiation, thermodynamics and fluid dynamics. These tools are then used to understand the behaviour of the atmosphere and ocean. The interplay between atmosphere and ocean systems in giving rise to the climate system is elucidated. The last chapter is devoted to climate dynamics. While primarily discussing the general characteristics of atmosphere and ocean, the book also elaborates on slightly more specialized topics like wind-driven circulation, thermohaline circulation and paleoclimate.This book will help undergraduate and entry-level graduate students to secure a beachhead on the fascinating new territory of atmosphere, ocean and climate science.

The book provides a concise and clear introduction as to how the atmosphere and ocean behave on our planet. The authors apply first principles to explain the structure and circulation of both fluids, how heat is transported and fine-scale processes like convection operate. The explanations employ clear schematics, emphasizing the controlling processes, together with brief mathematical manipulations. The book is beautifully illustrated throughout including wonderful photographs of laboratory experiments, as well as historical asides about the key scientists who made the first break through. This is a great book for anyone wishing to acquire a more profound understanding as to how the atmosphere and ocean operate.

I purchased Marshall and Plumb's book in order to give me a bit more quantitative information on the subject than I had gotten from the IPCC and the U.S. Global Change Research Project reports, among others. It had been many years since I last had an in-depth exposure to physics and advanced math (late 1950s, earl;y 1960s), so I spent several weeks reviewing, mostly differential equations. A good grounding in physics and calculus through diff. eq. is really necessary to get the best benefit from this book, but having achieved that, the book is an oustanding introduction to the topics implied in the title. There is enough informaton, presented in an extremely readable format, that I have been driven back to my computer to develop simple models from the book's content. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone willing to put forth a modicum of effort to become much better informed about the science.

This book comprises a great INTRODUCTION to the study of the atmosphere-ocean-climate system. I'd suggest for anyone with a sprouting interest in the subject to start off with this book and then move on to Benoit Cushman-Roisin, which in my opinion is one of the best in terms of exposition and clarity, although it requires a bit of mathematical maturity. Finally, one could begin to grasp the more intimidating texts, such as Gill or Pedlosky.

The GFD labs in this book offer decent physical insight. Also, this text is good for a beginning student since it will expose them to observations of the atmosphere and ocean, in turn allowing them to gain an understanding of the averaged large scale structure. Obtaining such a solid basis is important for one to successfully continue in the subject. However, my biggest problem with this text is it's neglect to cover material pertaining to vorticity dynamics, although I suppose one could find such material in the more advanced texts.

I think this is a good introduction to the dynamics of the atmosphere and ocean. By studying the atmosphere and ocean together, one gains a deeper understanding of both and how they interact to form the climate system. I believe the book is intended for upper-level undergraduates majoring in the earth sciences (based on a class that Professors Marshall and Plumb taught at MIT?). So it uses calculus to explain physical principles but does not go into as much detail as graduate texts by Vallis, Pedlosky, etc.

The real strength of this book is how it allows the reader to visualize phenomena through its outstanding figures, accompanying lab experiments, and web site [...]. My department bought the rotating tank so we can perform the experiments described in the book. Nothing beats seeing Ekman pumping, a Hadley cell, wind-driven gyres, etc. with your own eyes, but the book has figures showing the experiments if you don't have access to a rotating tank.

One complaint is that I think Figure 10.15 and the accompanying explanation of the wind-driven circulation is wrong, i.e. Taylor-Proudman on a sphere is not the relevant physical principle for the wind-driven circulation.

Very well presentation of the material acompanied of details to conduct laboratory experiments and all the data accessible through book's website. The text is clear with concise explanations and tips to follow and try all their derivations. The treatment of ocean and atmospheres as a continuum and unique system is simply amazing. Key references are provided for the reader interested in an in depth treatment of any subject, and in it is own constitutes a valuable reference for teaching as well as for self-study (especially beginners). Not recommended for those interested in mesoscale dynamics or microscale processes. Finally, the carefully edition (recreative illustrations, footnotes with details on fathers of the field, etc) of the book makes this indeed a beautifull book.

The only fault is that there is no paperback edition; this will help make this valuable reference more accessible.