'A comprehensive textbook for students of meteorology.'Aslib Book List, Vol. 58, No. 2, February 1993

• PART I: INTRODUCTION ; 1. What is Synoptic Meteorology? ; 2. Units and Variables ; 3. Coordinate Systems ; PART II: SCALAR FIELDS AND THEIR KINEMATICS ; 1. The Pressure Field ; 2. The Temperature and Moisture Fields ; 3. The Measurement of Scalar Fields ; PART III: KINEMATICS OF THE WIND FIELD ; 1. Properties of the Wind Field ; 2. Computation of Divergence, Vorticity, and Deformation ; 3. Properties of the Three Dimensional Wind Field ; 4. Measuring the Wind Field ; PART IV: ELEMENTARY ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS AND THERMODYNAMICS ; 1. The Law of Motion ; 2. The Equation of Continuity ; 3. The Thermodynamics Equation ; 4. Friction ; 5. The Vorticity Equation ; 6. Energetics ; 7. Thermodynamic Retrieval ; PART V: QUASI-GEOSTROPHIC THEORY ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Estimating the terms in the Vorticity and Thermodynamics Equation ; 3. Estimating Vertical Motion from the Observed Wind and Mass Fields ; 4. Estimating Local Height Tendencies from the Observed Wind and Mass Fields ; 5. The Quasi-Geostrophic Vorticity and Thermodnamic Equations ; 6. Derivation of the Quasi-Geostrophic w and Height Tendency Equations ; 7. Interpretation of the Quasi-Geostrophic w-Equation ; 8. The Quasi-Geostrophic Potential Vorticity Form of the Height-Tendency Equation ; 9. Static Stability Effects on Vertical Motion ; 10. Interpretation of the Quasi-Geostrophic Height-Tendency Equation ; 11. The Effects of Vertical Variations in Static Stability on the Geopotential-Height Tendency