Coupled Atmosphere Ocean Dynamics

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

How the Ocean : Atmosphere System Is Driven -- Transfer of Properties between Atmosphere and Ocean -- Properties of a Fluid at Rest -- Equations Satisfied by a Moving Fluid -- Adjustment under Gravity in a Nonrotating System -- Adjustment under Gravity of a Density-Stratified Fluid -- Effect of Rotation -- Gravity Waves in a Rotating Fluid -- Forced Motion -- Effects of Side Boundaries -- The Tropics -- Mid-Latitudes -- Instabilities, Fronts, and the General Circulation -- Units and Their SI Equivalents -- Useful Values -- Properties of Seawater -- Properties of Moist Air.

Coupled atmosphere-ocean models are at the core of numerical climate models. There is an extraordinarily broad class of coupled atmosphere-ocean models ranging from sets of equations that can be solved analytically to highly detailed representations of Nature requiring the most advanced computers for execution. The models are applied to subjects including the conceptual understanding of Earth's climate, predictions that support human activities in a variable climate, and projections aimed to prepare society for climate change. The present book fills a void in the current literature by presenting a basic and yet rigorous treatment of how the models of the atmosphere and the ocean are put together into a coupled system. The text of the book is divided into chapters organized according to complexity of the components that are coupled. Two full chapters are dedicated to current efforts on the development of generalist couplers and coupling methodologies all over the world.

This textbook develops a fundamental understanding of geophysical fluid dynamics by providing a mathematical description of fluid properties, kinematics and dynamics as influenced by earth’s rotation. Its didactic value is based on elaborate treatment of basic principles, derived equations, exemplary solutions and their interpretation. Both starting graduate students and experienced scientists can closely follow the mathematical development of the basic theory applied to the flow of uniform density fluids on a rotating earth, with (1) basic physics introducing the "novel" effects of rotation for flows on planetary scales, (2) simplified dynamics of shallow water and quasi-geostrophic theories applied to a variety of steady, unsteady flows and geophysical wave motions, demonstrating the restoring effects of Coriolis acceleration, earth’s curvature (beta) and topographic steering, (3) conservation of vorticity and energy at geophysical scales, and (4) specific applications to help demonstrate the ability to create and solve new problems in this very rich field. A comprehensive review of the complex geophysical flows of the ocean and the atmosphere is closely knitted with this basic description, intended to be developed further in the second volume that addresses density stratified geophysical fluid dynamics.

The exchange of momentum, heat, moisture, gases (such as CO2 and O2) and salt between the atmosphere and the ocean is a phenomenon of paramount importance for the dynamics of the atmosphere and the ocean. With the pressing need for reliable climate forecast (e.g. to deal with severe food and energy problems) interactive ocean-atmosphere models have become one of the main objectives of geophysical fluid dynamics. This volume provides the first state-of-the-art review of interactive ocean-atmosphere modelling and its application to climates. The papers are by active and eminent scientists from different countries and different disciplines. They provide a up-to-date survey of major recent discoveries and valuable recommendations for future research.

For advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in atmospheric, oceanic, and climate science, Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate Dynamics is an introductory textbook on the circulations of the atmosphere and ocean and their interaction, with an emphasis on global scales. It will give students a good grasp of what the atmosphere and oceans look like on the large-scale and why they look that way. The role of the oceans in climate and paleoclimate is also discussed. The combination of observations, theory and accompanying illustrative laboratory experiments sets this text apart by making it accessible to students with no prior training in meteorology or oceanography. * Written at a mathematical level that is appealing for undergraduates and beginning graduate students * Provides a useful educational tool through a combination of observations and laboratory demonstrations which can be viewed over the web * Contains instructions on how to reproduce the simple but informative laboratory experiments * Includes copious problems (with sample answers) to help students learn the material.