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Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics
Fundamentals and Large-Scale Circulation
Fluid dynamics is fundamental to our understanding of the atmosphere and oceans. Although many
of the same principles of fluid dynamics apply to both the atmosphere and oceans, textbooks on
the topic have tended to concentrate on either the atmosphere or the ocean, or on the theory of
geophysical fluid dynamics (GFD). However, there is much to be said for a unified discussion,
and this major new textbook provides prehensive, coherent treatment of all these topics. It is
based on course notes that the author has developed over a number of years at Princeton and the
University of California.
The first part of the book provides an introduction to the fundamentals of geophysical fluid
dynamics, including discussions of rotation and stratification, the role of vorticity and potential
vorticity, and scaling and approximations. The second part of the book discusses baroclinic and
barotropic instabilities, wave–mean flow interactions and turbulence. The third and fourth parts
discuss the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean. Student problems and exercises, as
well as bibliographic and historical notes, are included at the end of each chapter.
Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics: Fundamentals and Large-Scale Circulation will
prove to be an invaluable graduate textbook on advanced courses in GFD, meteorology, atmo-
spheric science, and oceanography, and will also be an excellent review volume for researchers.
Additional resources are available at 0521849692
Geoffrey K. Vallis is a senior scientist and professor in the Program in Atmospheric and
Oceanic Sciences and NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University.
He is also an associate faculty member at the Program in Applied putational Mathematics,
and a former professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Until recently he was editor of
the