An Introduction to Atmospheric Physics

David Andrews has been a lecturer in Physics at Oxford University and a Physics tutor at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, for 20 years. During this time he has had extensive experience of teaching a wide range of physics courses, including atmospheric physics. This experience has included giving lectures to large student audiences and also giving tutorials to small groups. Tutorials, in particular, have given him insights into the kinds of problems that physics students encounter when learning atmospheric physics, and the kinds of topics that excite them. His broad teaching experience has also helped him introduce students to connections between topics in atmospheric physics and related topics in other areas of physics. He feels that it is particularly important to expose today's physics students to the excitements and challenges presented by the atmosphere and climate. He has also published a graduate textbook, Middle Atmosphere Dynamics, with J. R. Holton and C. B. Leovy (1987, Academic Press). He is a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, a Member of the Institute of Physics, and a Member of the American Meteorological Society.

'… I strongly recommend [this] book, both because there is no other recent text that covers the same material and because of the high quality … The author does an exceptional job of organising the presentation of complex material, and manages to explain it in terms that are accessible to undergraduates and more senior students, as well as people with a more casual interest in the topics who seek a basic understanding of the physical principles.' Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

• 1. Introduction; 2. Atmospheric thermodynamics; 3. Atmospheric radiation; 4. Basic fluid dynamics; 5. Further atmospheric fluid dynamics; 6. Stratospheric chemistry; 7. Atmospheric remote sounding; 8. Climate change; 9. Atmospheric modelling; Appendix A. Useful physical constants; Appendix B. Derivation of the equations of motion in spherical coordinates; References; Index.