Customer Reviews

Meteorology for Scientists and Engineers

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

 

 

This is the most complete introductory-advanced book I have seen to date. It covers many pertinient subjects. Important meteorological concepts are explained in enough detail to satisfy even the more advanced users, but simple enough to give the beginner excellent insight. These concepts do not have to be presented in a difficult fashion to make the author appear intelligent - he makes a bold, simple statement by taking tough concepts and making them understandable to the masses!

Want to know a little more about hurricanes? Air pollution? Thunderstorms? Stull presents terrific synopses of many meteorological topics. He doesn't try to be the expert in every sub-specialty in the field; instead, he provides the basic material and encourages the reader to seek additional information from expert books and web sites. I'm currently taking a class in atmospheric transport and diffusion. Stull summarizes the course material and leads me to references I didn't know existed. I'm ordering this book as a reference now and as a starting point for future study.

As the title of this book implies, it was written for those readers who are not specialists in meteorology but who are interested in a more technical introduction to the subject, and not just one written for the "general audience." The book serves this need very well, and it is a joy to read, even if it is not read cover to cover, as was the case for this reviewer. Each topic, weather it is hurricanes, tornadoes, or turbulence, is presented with many examples, with unit and "reasonableness" checks accompanying these examples. The mathematics is straightforward, with the physics being emphasized with numerous back-of-the-envelope calculations dispersed throughout the text. As in any high-quality book that seeks to explain, and not merely expound, diagrams are used throughout. And most importantly, the author encourages student readers to break out on their own and investigate the various meteorological phenomena without the guidance of the book. This has the effect of encouraging independence of thought and intellectual honesty. This is strongly emphasized in the discussion on climate change, definitely the best chapter in the book in the opinion of this reviewer, wherein the author discusses the ethics of scientific investigation. There have been a few investigators that have violated the canon of ethics that the author outlines, but the state of scientific and technological knowledge at the present time is ample proof that many do not.

The chapter on climate change could in fact be used as an introduction to a more serious investigation of this topic, one that is independent of the political overtones that seem to have poisoned the atmosphere of debate on it. The author discusses climate change in terms of `heuristic models' that he admits are oversimplified, but do serve as a didactic tool to illustrate the main processes and physics. He does allude to `global climate models' but cautions that the large number of approximations involved in these models make them very tentative at best. The Greenhouse effect is discussed via the Stefan-Boltzmann law, and the resulting overestimation of the average temperature leads the author to complicating this scenario via the infrared "atmospheric window", and water-vapor, cloud, and ice-albedo feedbacks. Again, these discussions are simplified and preliminary to more in-depth discussions on climate change that interested readers can pursue. And as in any scientific investigation, they must be accompanied by strong skepticism and a willingness to confront the facts as they are.

When I was in middle school, I had a passion for astronomy. Second to that physical science was meteorology. It's been over a decade since I left academia, and thanks to the internet I can come back.
I assumed this text had some calculus in it, making it into a college textbook, and I was right. I wanted a taste of meteorology on that level, and this book does it. Mostly it involves no more than high school physics with algebra, but the concepts are what really matter in understanding this subject. The book does go further into calculus if one so chooses. I am please to fill one of the few gaps left in my pursuit of knowledge, but I warn my fellow Americans who still wallow in the archaic system that this book assumes metric.

This really is a great book if you want some detail on how the atmosphere works - the physics of the atmosphere. The descritive content is so well written and the diagrams so clear that you dont need to go into the algebra and trigonometry to get a deeper understanding of the near earth environment - what goes on there. There are a whole lot of options to go deeper into the maths if you want. Highly recommended for those interested in boundary layer meteorology, weather systems and air pollution dispersion.

This is an immensely enjoyable book that is accessible for non specialists. It does assume "advanced calculus" but it helps you through the derivations anyway.
There are lots of worked examples when new concepts are introduced.
It is abundantly illustrated and full of entertaining insets.
It is anything but dry (well, I guess you would expect that on a book that discusses meteorology ;))
There is an introduction to the subject of the greenhouse effect and global warming.
It goes beyond the mere subject matter and discusses what it is to be a scientist.

I would recommend it to anyone who wants to enlarge his/her culture.

This is a very good summary of all the major concepts in meteorology. I'd like to see more use of calculus though, as opposed to what the author intends. It's hard to understand some aspects of dynamics without using calculus.

As the preface says, "(This book) uses equations to focus on the physics of the atmosphere. Important descriptive concepts of meteorology are intentionally excuded to keep this book concise, and they are well covered in other textbokks such as Meteorology Today by C Donald Ahrens."
It may well be an excellent text; I gave it two stars just to alert people to these facts.