Shang-Ping Xie - Böcker

Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics of Climate Variability and Climate Change presents the patterns, mechanisms, and predictability of climate variability and anthropogenic climate change. Based on a graduate course the author has taught over 25 years, this book provides the physical foundation for those who are interested in fundamental questions such as: why climate varies from one year to another; how predictable climate is; and how climate will change in the face of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This is the first comprehensive and systematic treatment of this subject that simultaneously draws on the latest research and is accessible for graduate students.

The book takes a step-by-step systematic approach to coupled ocean-atmosphere interactions. This allows a wide range of comparative views: climate modes among and across different tropical ocean basins, ocean feedback on the atmosphere (in and out of the tropics), and spontaneous internal oscillation versus externally forced climate change. Such comparative views offer unprecedented insight into the dynamics of climate variability and predictability. This book can be used as supplementary reading for advanced undergraduate students, as coursework in climate dynamics, modeling, variability, and change, and as a reference book and research monograph for researchers in ocean, atmospheric, climate, and earth system sciences.

Delivers the first authored textbook on ocean-atmosphere interactions that give rise to climate variability/predictability and shape regional patterns of anthropogenic climate change Contains historical accounts of major breakthroughs in the field Includes homework questions, helping to reinforce key concepts and applications

This book consists of the articles from the special issue of “New developments in mode-water research: Dynamic and climatic effects” in the Journal of Oceanography, Vol. 68 No. 1, 2012, comprising 10 chapters that cover a wide spectrum of topics. Topics range from the formation, circulation, and variability of mode waters to their dynamic effect on surface current and climate impact, and point to new directions for mode-water research. How do mode waters vary on decadal and longer timescales, and how will they change in response to global warming? What causes mode-water variability, and how does it affect surface circulation and climate? What are the roles of mesoscale eddies in the formation and dissipation of mode waters and in their variability and change? This book serves as a signpost in our endeavor to answer these and other challenging questions.