David C. Fritts – författare

The book covers topics confined to dynamical coupling processes in the Earth's lower and middle atmosphere in order to examine progress in a relatively focused area. Nevertheless, the results span spatial scales from molecular to global, and temporal scales from seconds to decades. The unifying theme in all areas is the strong interactions occurring between various scales of motion. The articles represent contributions to a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held in Norway in May 1992. They are written by some of the leading experts in the field and are of interest to specialists in the field of atmospheric dynamics as well as to students at graduate and doctorate levels.

The NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Coupling Processes in the Lower and Middle atmosphere held in Loen, Norway in May 1992 was, in the estimation of apparently all participants, an enormous success. The 18 invited speakers included many of the leaders in the field and resulted in the attendance of a large number of contributing speakers and observers. The subject of the workshop was itself very timely, given the increasing awareness within the international community of the sensitivity of the atmosphere to coupling between adjacent layers, different latitudes, and various scales of motion. It was also very beneficial to bring together researchers with different approaches to the same or similar problems. For example, experimentalists benefitted from the inputs of modelers and theoreticians concerning the needs of current models and the most pressing problems and unknowns. Likewise, theoreticians were challenged to apply themselves to realistic problems and saw their theories tested against geophysical data. These discussions led to meaningful exchanges of ideas and challenges to or displacement of conventional wisdom in some areas. Indeed, possibly the greatest benefit of the workshop was the exposure of many participants to other areas of research or approaches to problems relevant to their own work. Workshop topics were confined to dynamical coupling processes in order to examine progress in a relatively focussed area. Nevertheless, the results presented spanned spatial scales from molecular to global and temporal scales from seconds to decades.