Author: Gabrielle Walker Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN: 054753695X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 293
Book Description
The science and history of what lies between us and space: “I never knew air could be so interesting.” —Bill Bryson, New York Times bestselling author of The Body: A Guide for Occupants A flamboyant Renaissance Italian discovers how heavy our air really is (the air filling Carnegie Hall, for example, weighs seventy thousand pounds). A one-eyed barnstorming pilot finds a set of winds that constantly blow five miles above our heads. An impoverished American farmer figures out why hurricanes move in a circle by carving equations with his pitchfork on a barn door. A well-meaning inventor nearly destroys the ozone layer (he also came up with the idea of putting lead in gasoline). A reclusive mathematical genius predicts, thirty years before he’s proven right, that the sky contains a layer of floating metal fed by the glowing tails of shooting stars. We don’t just live in the air; we live because of it. It’s the most miraculous substance on earth, responsible for our food, our weather, our water, and our ability to hear. In this exuberant book, science writer Gabrielle Walker peels back the layers of our atmosphere with the stories of the people who have uncovered its secrets. “A sense of wonder . . . animates Ms. Walker’s high-spirited narrative and speeds it along like a fresh-blowing westerly.” —The New York Times “A fabulous introduction to the world above our heads.” —Daily Mail on Sunday “A lively history of scientists’ and adventurers’ exploration of this important and complex contributor to life on Earth . . . readers will find this informative book to be a breath of fresh air.” —Publishers Weekly
Author: Adrian E. Gill Publisher: Elsevier ISBN: 1483281582 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 683
Book Description
Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics deals with a systematic and unified approach to the dynamics of the ocean and atmosphere. The book reviews the relationship of the ocean-atmosphere and how this system functions. The text explains this system through radiative equilibrium models; the book also considers the greenhouse effect, the effects of convection and of horizontal gradients, and the variability in radiative driving of the earth. Equations in the book show the properties of a material element, mass conservation, the balance of scalar quantity (such as salinity), and the mathematical behavior of the ocean and atmosphere. The book also addresses how the ocean-atmosphere system tends to adjust to equilibrium, both in the absence and presence of driving forces such as gravity. The text also explains the effect of the earth's rotation on the system, as well as the application of forced motions such as that produced by wind or temperature changes. The book explains tropical dynamics and the effects of variation of the Coriolis parameter with latitude. The text will be appreciated by meteorologists, environmentalists, students studying hydrology, and people working in general earth sciences.
Author: Peter S. Liss Publisher: Springer ISBN: 3642256430 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 366
Book Description
The oceans and atmosphere interact through various processes, including the transfer of momentum, heat, gases and particles. In this book leading international experts come together to provide a state-of-the-art account of these exchanges and their role in the Earth-system, with particular focus on gases and particles. Chapters in the book cover: i) the ocean-atmosphere exchange of short-lived trace gases; ii) mechanisms and models of interfacial exchange (including transfer velocity parameterisations); iii) ocean-atmosphere exchange of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide; iv) ocean atmosphere exchange of particles and v) current and future data collection and synthesis efforts. The scope of the book extends to the biogeochemical responses to emitted / deposited material and interactions and feedbacks in the wider Earth-system context. This work constitutes a highly detailed synthesis and reference; of interest to higher-level university students (Masters, PhD) and researchers in ocean-atmosphere interactions and related fields (Earth-system science, marine / atmospheric biogeochemistry / climate). Production of this book was supported and funded by the EU COST Action 735 and coordinated by the International SOLAS (Surface Ocean- Lower Atmosphere Study) project office.
Author: Gabrielle Walker Publisher: Bloomsbury UK ISBN: Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 344
Book Description
In 1960 Joe Kittinger fell to earth from the edge of space and lived. Inside a pressure suit, attached to a huge helium balloon, Kittinger freefell from where the earth's atmosphere met space - an appalling, hostile, environment that would freeze us, and burn us and boil us away. It is the air that Kittinger fell through that makes our lives on earth possible - the atmosphere is made up of enfolding layers of air which protect us so completely that we don't even realise the dangers of space lurking just twenty miles above us. We don't just live in the air, we live because of it. Gabrielle Walker's new book illuminates this most extraordinary and yet most underrated substance on earth- air. Thin air miraculously transforms into food; our atmosphere soaks up flares from the sun that are more violent than a nuclear explosion; the air wraps our planet in a blanket of warmth; radio signals bounce off a layer of floating metal in the air. An Ocean of Air reveals the story of how humanity came to understand earth's atmosphere through the stories of the people who discovered the functions of each of its layers- the Italian Renaissance scientist, disciple of Galileo, who discovered that we live at the bottom of a dense ocean of air; an arrogant Frenchman who had only just discovered how air brings us life, when the guillotine brought him death; a hapless 1920s inventor who inadvertently created chemicals that could punch a hole in the sky. After you've read this book, you will never take air for granted again.
Author: William Allan Perrie Publisher: WIT Press ISBN: 1853129291 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 241
Book Description
The increase in levels of population and human development in coastal areas has led to a greater importance of understanding atmosphere-ocean interactions. This second volume on atmosphere-ocean interactions aims to present several of the key mechanisms that are important for the development of marine storms.
Author: Debra Frasier Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN: 9780152163549 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 44
Book Description
A young girl and her mother walk along the beach and marvel at the treasures cast up by the sea and the wonders of the world around them.
Author: John Marshall Publisher: Academic Press ISBN: 0080954456 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
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 andbeginning graduate students* Provides a useful educational tool through a combination of observations andlaboratory demonstrations which can be viewed over the web* Contains instructions on how to reproduce the simple but informativelaboratory experiments* Includes copious problems (with sample answers) to help students learn thematerial.
Author: Miles McPhee Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 0387783350 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 218
Book Description
At a time when the polar regions are undergoing rapid and unprecedented change, understanding exchanges of momentum, heat and salt at the ice-ocean interface is critical for realistically predicting the future state of sea ice. By offering a measurement platform largely unaffected by surface waves, drifting sea ice provides a unique laboratory for studying aspects of geophysical boundary layer flows that are extremely difficult to measure elsewhere. This book draws on both extensive observations and theoretical principles to develop a concise description of the impact of stress, rotation, and buoyancy on the turbulence scales that control exchanges between the atmosphere and underlying ocean when sea ice is present. Several interesting and unique observational data sets are used to illustrate different aspects of ice-ocean interaction ranging from the impact of salt on melting in the Greenland Sea marginal ice zone, to how nonlinearities in the equation of state for seawater affect mixing in the Weddell Sea. The book’s content, developed from a series of lectures, may be appropriate additional material for upper-level undergraduates and first-year graduate students studying the geophysics of sea ice and planetary boundary layers.
Author: Jacquelyn Mitchard Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 1101199563 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 501
Book Description
"Masterful...A big story about human connection and emotional survival" - Los Angeles Times The first book ever chosen by Oprah's Book Club Few first novels receive the kind of attention and acclaim showered on this powerful story—a nationwide bestseller, a critical success, and the first title chosen for Oprah's Book Club. Both highly suspenseful and deeply moving, The Deep End of the Ocean imagines every mother's worst nightmare—the disappearance of a child—as it explores a family's struggle to endure, even against extraordinary odds. Filled with compassion, humor, and brilliant observations about the texture of real life, here is a story of rare power, one that will touch readers' hearts and make them celebrate the emotions that make us all one.
Author: Eric B. Kraus Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 019536208X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 385
Book Description
With both the growing importance of integrating studies of air-sea interaction and the interest in the general problem of global warming, the appearance of the second edition of this popular text is especially welcome. Thoroughly updated and revised, the authors have retained the accessible, comprehensive expository style that distinguished the earlier edition. Topics include the state of matter near the interface, radiation, surface wind waves, turbulent transfer near the interface, the planetary boundary layer, atmospherically-forced perturbations in the oceans, and large-scale forcing by sea surface buoyancy fluxes. This book will be welcomed by students and professionals in meteorology, physical oceanography, physics and ocean engineering.
Author: Gabrielle Walker
Author: Adrian E. Gill
Author: Peter S. Liss
Author: Gabrielle Walker
Author: William Allan Perrie
Author: Debra Frasier
Author: John Marshall
Author: Miles McPhee
Author: Jacquelyn Mitchard
Author: Eric B. Kraus