Introducing meteorology : a guide to weather

Cover
Contents
Acknowledgements and Figure Credits
Preface
1 Watching the Weather
	1.1 The Influence of Weather
	1.2 Weather Watchers
2 From Seaweed to Supercomputers
	2.1 The Age of Seaweed
	2.2 Early Meteorological Advances
	2.3 The First Forecasts
	2.4 Looking Up into the Atmosphere
	2.5 Towards Modern Forecasting
3 The Weather Station
	3.1 Surface Observations
	3.2 Inside the Stevenson Screen
	3.3 Outside the Stevenson Screen
	3.4 Watching the Skies
	3.5 Automatic Weather Stations
4 Gauging the Atmosphere
	4.1 Measuring the Upper Air
	4.2 Radar and Lidar
	4.3 Observations from Space
5 Anatomy of the Atmosphere
	5.1 Composition of the Atmosphere
	5.2 Pressure, Temperature and Density
	5.3 The Atmospheric Profile
6 Water in the Atmosphere
	6.1 The Hydrological Cycle
	6.2 Humidity and Moisture
	6.3 Water Droplets and Rain
	6.4 Ice Crystals and Snowflakes
7 It All Starts with the Sun
	7.1 Our Local Star
	7.2 The Earth in Equilibrium
	7.3 The Effect of the Atmosphere
	7.4 The Effect of Clouds
8 Hot and Cold
	8.1 Surface Temperature
	8.2 Adiabatic Ascent
	8.3 Clouds, Fog, Dew and Frost
	8.4 The Spherical Earth
	8.5 Variation of Total Solar Irradiance
	8.6 The Earth in Non-Equilibrium
9 The Atmosphere in Motion
	9.1 Highs, Lows and Circulation of Air
	9.2 The Coriolis Effect
	9.3 Hadley Cells
	9.4 Heat Transport in the Mid-Latitudes
	9.5 The Global Circulation
10 Mid-Latitude Weather Systems
	10.1 The Westerly Flow
	10.2 Anticyclones and Air Masses
	10.3 Low-Pressure Systems
	10.4 Fronts and Conveyor Belts
	10.5 When Storms Become Severe
11 Weather in the Tropics
	11.1 The Easterly Flow
	11.2 Intertropical Convergence Zone and Monsoons
	11.3 Tropical Depressions and Hurricanes
	11.4 El Niño, La Niña and the Southern Oscillation
12 Convective Systems, Tornadoes and Thunderstorms
	12.1 Unstable Conditions
	12.2 Cumulonimbus, Thunder and Lightning
	12.3 Organised Convective Systems
	12.4 Supercells and Tornadoes
13 Local Weather Effects
	13.1 Coastal Weather
	13.2 Mountain Weather
	13.3 Desert Weather
	13.4 Urban Weather
14 Forecasting the Weather
	14.1 Numerical Weather Prediction
	14.2 The Initial Conditions
	14.3 Running the Model
	14.4 Global and Regional Models
	14.5 Ensemble Forecasting
15 The Forecaster’s Challenge
	15.1 Making a Weather Forecast
	15.2 Forecasting Hazardous Weather
	15.3 Users of Forecasts
	15.4 When Forecasts Go Wrong
16 The Changing Climate
	16.1 Past Records of Climate
	16.2 Increasing Greenhouse Gas Concentrations
	16.3 Climate Models
	16.4 Simulating Past and Future Climate
	16.5 Adaptation versus Mitigation
Glossary
Further Reading