Our Amazing Atmosphere

Book excerpt: Our Amazing Atmosphere: An Introduction to Weather and Climate provides students with a comprehensive exploration of the earth's atmosphere. The text places special emphasis on relationships between fundamental variables, such as temperature, pressure, winds, and moisture, and how these variables underlie atmospheric phenomena. This approach allows students to acquire a unified and holistic understanding of the atmosphere. The text begins with chapters covering the basic anatomy of the atmosphere and various influences that govern its behavior. Subsequent chapters explore cloud types and precipitation, along with different types of weather systems, such as thunderstorms, mid-latitude low cyclones, and hurricanes. The book includes a detailed description on how weather forecasts are made and a thorough presentation of weather and climate anomalies, as exemplified by El Nino. Students learn how anomalies like El Nino influence long-term weather worldwide, providing them with a glimpse of the interdependence of the atmosphere and other components of the Earth system. The final chapter addresses the all-important issue of climate change, with emphasis on its scientific basis, using concepts introduced in previous chapters. In providing students with foundational knowledge on weather, climate, and atmosphere, Our Amazing Atmosphere is suitable for introductory courses in geology, geosciences, physics, climatology, or any course that studies climate change. Eugene Robl has a Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Utah, M.S. in physics from Missouri University of Science and Technology, and B.A. in physics from Loyola-Marymount University. He is an instructor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah as well as an adjunct professor at Westminster College of Salt Lake City, where he has taught courses in meteorology, astronomy, chemistry, and physics.