Fundamentals of Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere, w. CD-ROM

von Guido Visconti

This book is intended mainly as an introductory course to the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere and to climate dynamics. The basics in thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, radiation and chemistry are given and aimed at explaining the most interesting problems existing in the study of the atmospheres of the Earth and planets. The originality of the book is that it even offers the computer programs to solve these problems. A particular effort is made to approach the different topics intuitively. Among the themes covered is the most recent evolution concerning the ozone hole, the carbon dioxide problem and the chaos theory. The CD-ROM containing solutions with computer models is attached to the book. This CD includes few program listings (in FORTRAN) and the instructions to run them in order to solve a number of problems. There are also two energy balance climate models, programs for the dynamics and a simulation for the ice ages based on the stochastic resonance theory.