Customer Reviews

Global Physical Climatology, Volume 56 (International Geophysics)

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

 

 

This is the most thorough, most rigorous, well-written textbook in global systems climatology that I've seen. If you're bright, interested, and aren't allergic to equations (you don't need to read them to understand the book, you just have to not freak out) then this text will teach you more about the planet as a dynamic system than any other that I've seen -- plus, unlike most texbooks, it's not chuck full of stupid mistakes. I've used it in my upper division climatology class since it came out.

Simply put, this is the only assigned text I kept from my college years. It's compact size and overall readability are excellent. Although intended for advanced undergrads and beginning graduate students, it's still a great reference for multi-disciplinary scientists, basic global circulation modellers, researchers, and professors. The appendices are particularly noteworhty, especially the list of English and Greek symbols commonly used in just about all the physical sciences, and the derivation of SI Units. If anything, the book is pricey (as all in the International Geophysics Series are), but this one is worth it.

it's small sized as a text book. so it is easier to carry it around and read it at extra minutes, like when you're waiting for bus.

"Global Physical Climatology" by Dennis L. Hartmann has been getting rave reviews from several people. However, they aren't me. As a student who had to use this text for a Physical Climatology course in college, I found this text to be inadequate to my needs. Important terms and phrases are not highlighted or made to stand out amongst the rest of the text, the graphics (if you can call them graphics) used in this text are bland and hard to read at times and the problems asked at the end of every chapter are overly complicated and reworded so as to seemingly trick the student who is required to complete them. I much rather would have had to bear the physical burden of carrying a larger and thicker text in its stead, because at least I likely would have learned something about Physical Climatology. The point of a text book is not to regurgitate information blindly in hopes that its reader will instantly understand it or even understand it after several thorough scans. The point of a text book is to be very informative, and to be able to help the student relate to the material and learn it. This book seemingly does the former. I'm not the only student who has complaints about this text. Virtually the entire class has gripes about it. Maybe it's a good book to have AFTER one has had enough knowledge of Physical Climatology to go back and refer to something that may not be clear or that has become vague.

If you are scheduled to take a Physical Climatology course, you have access to the syllabus of the course well in advance of the course's term beginning and you come across this title as the text that will be used, send your professor an email explaining to him or her that this book is overpriced and ineffective as a text from which the students will be able to learn. Not everyone goes to graduate school, where texts like this may be commonplace, and this book is being used for a class needed in order to obtain a Bachelor of Science Degree. I give it a 0 out of 5 stars (even though I rated it 1, which is the lowest possible rating).