Physics of the Atmosphere and Climate

Murry Salby holds the Chair of Climate Science at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He was previously a Professor at the University of Colorado, where he served as Director of the Center for Atmospheric Theory and Analysis. Before that he was a researcher at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research and at Princeton University. Professor Salby has authored more than 100 scientific articles in major international journals, as well as the textbook Fundamentals of Atmospheric Physics (1996). His research focuses on changes of the atmospheric circulation in relation to global structure, energetics and climate. Involving large-scale computer simulation and satellite data, Salby's research has provided insight into a wide range of phenomena in the Earth-atmosphere system.

• 1. The Earth-atmosphere system; 2. Thermodynamics of gases; 3. The second law and its implications; 4. Heterogeneous systems; 5. Transformations of moist air; 6. Hydrostatic equilibrium; 7. Static stability; 8. Radiative transfer; 9. Aerosol and cloud; 10. Atmospheric motion; 11. Atmospheric equations of motion; 12. Large-scale motion; 13. The planetary boundary layer; 14. Atmospheric waves; 15. The general circulation; 16. Dynamic stability; 17. Influence of the ocean; 18. Interaction with the stratosphere.

'The first edition is a classic. As a textbook it is unequalled in breadth, depth and lucidity. It is the single volume that I recommend to every one of my students in atmospheric science. The new edition improves over the previous edition, if that is possible at all, in three aspects: beautiful illustrations of global processes … from newly available satellite data, new topics of current interest … and a new chapter on the influence of the ocean on the atmosphere. These changes make the book more useful as a starting point for studying climate change.' Professor Yuk Yung, California Institute of Technology