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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > Meteorology > General
This book addresses climate change and sustainability management from a transdisciplinary perspective which encompasses within itself how different humanistic disciplines can culminate with each other to move ahead with the agenda. Issues of adapting to climate change and sustainability management have been gaining global prominence over the past few decades. There have also been volumes of literature that highlight the technical dimensions of climate change and sustainability across regions and cultures. However, they have had limited strength to bring direct and desirable impact in promoting pro-climate action and sustainability behaviour. The major reason for this is limited inclusion of pluralistic perspectives into human cognition and affect, and resultant limited public acceptability. Although behavioural science as a discipline has taken a front seat in promoting behavioural transformation, the book argues that other humanistic fields of understanding like education, art, literature, philosophy, political science, sociology, economics, etc., have to be integrated in order to present a holistic standpoint to sustainability literature.
There are incentive indications that the growth of human population, the increasing use and abuse of natural resources combined with climate changes (probably due to anthropic pollution, to some extent) exert a considerable stress on closed (or semi-enclosed) seas and lakes. In many regions of the world, marine and lacustrine hydrosystems are (or have been) the object of severe or fatal alterations, from changes in regional hydrological regimes and/or modifications of the quantity or the quality of water resources associated with (natural or man-made) land reclamation, deterioration of geochemical balances (increased salinity, oxygen's depletion .. . ), mutations of ecosystems (eutrophication, dramatic decrease in biological diversity ... ) to geological disturbances and to the socio-economic perturbations which have been - or may be in the near future - the consequences of them. Seas and lakes are dying all over the world and some may be regarded as already dead and there is an urgent need to try to understand how this is happening and identify the causes of the observed mutations, weighing the relative effects of climatic evolution and anthropic interferences. This book is the outcome of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, held in Liege in May 2003. The Workshop was organized at th the University of Liege as a follow on meeting to the 35 International Liege Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics, dedicated in 2003 to Dying and Dead Seas. The book contains the synthesis of the lectures given by 16 main speakers during the ARW.
This book introduces the basic structure, modeling methods, numerical calculation processes, post-processing, and system functions of MatDEM, which applies the basic principles and algorithm of the discrete element method. The discrete element method can effectively simulate the discontinuity, inhomogeneity, and large deformation damage of rock and soil. It is widely used in both research and industry. Based on the innovative matrix discrete element computing method, the author developed the high-performance discrete element software MatDEM from scratch, which can handle millions of elements in discrete element numerical simulations. This book also presents several examples of applications in geological and geotechnical engineering, including basic geotechnical engineering problems, discrete element tests, three dimensional landslides, and dynamic and multi-field coupling functions. Teaching videos and the relevant software can be accessed on the MATDEM website (http://matdem.com). The book serves as a useful reference for research and engineering staff, undergraduates, and postgraduates who work in the fields of geology, geotechnical, water conservancy, civil engineering, mining, and physics.
This book analyses the threat posed by the continued use of fossil fuels. By utilizing Elizabeth Shove's social practices approach and Murphy's own social closure framework, the book examines the accelerating treadmill of carbon-polluting practices. It incorporates externalities theory to investigate how the full cost of fossil fuels is paid by others rather than users, and to demonstrate that the environmental commons is a medium for conveying intergenerational monopolisation and exclusion in the Anthropocene. Murphy uncovers a pattern of opposition to change when exploiting valuable but dangerous resources. He argues that a new faith in mastering nature is emerging as a belief in just-in-time technological solutions to circumvent having to change fossil-fuelled practices. The book then moves on to assess proposed solutions, including Beck's staging of risk and his hypothesis that the anticipation of global catastrophe will incite emancipation. It proposes a novel approach to enhancing foresight and avoid incubating disaster. It will appeal to readers interested in an original social science analysis of this creeping crisis and its resolution.
The behaviour and hence the possible impact of trace gases and solids in the atmosphere is now of major concern amongst scientists. This book is a result of discussions between members of the IUPAC Commission on Solubility Data and the IUPAC Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry extending over several years. The book provides a broad survey and theoretical basis of many aspects of the behaviour of stable and unstable chemicals in the atmosphere. There is special emphasis on heterogeneous processes at all levels of the atmosphere. Modern techniques of investigation and of modelling such processes are discussed and many experimental data relating to interaction of gases with cloud droplets and with surfaces of solid particles are included. A detailed account of theoretical and practical aspects of Henry's law constants, including their relationship to infinite dilution activity coefficients, is also presented. Experimental values of 15 inorganic and 153 organic stable compounds have been compiled and evaluated for dissolution in pure water and, in some cases, seawater. This volume will be of interest to chemists and environmental scientists, as well as geochemists and others involved in atmospheric modelling. Researchers associated with aerosol and air quality studies, as well as pollution issues, will also find it of interest. The sections on Henry's law constants will be of particular benefit to chemical engineers.
This book is mainly focused on the climate change in Southeast Asia and its adjacent regions. It summarizes results from recent scientific research based on observational analysis, data diagnosis, theoretical analysis, and model simulations. The book covers the following research areas: (1) characteristics and mechanisms of spring-summer atmospheric circulation systems, (2) ocean-atmosphere-land interaction and climate variability, (3) climate effect of the Tibetan Plateau, (4) attribution of regional climate change and feedback/impact of regional climate on the global climate, and (5) seasonal-to-subseasonal climate prediction. It is anticipated that the book provides useful information for enhancing our understanding of the change in climate over Southeast Asia and the adjacent regions.
This book is a compilation of selected papers from the 4th International Petroleum and Petrochemical Technology Conference (IPPTC 2020). The proceedings focus on Static & Dynamic Reservoir Evaluation and Management; Drilling, Production and Oilfield Chemistry; Storage, Transportation and Flow Assurance; Refinery and Petrochemical Engineering; Machinery, Materials and Corrosion Protection. The conference not only provides a platform to exchanges experience, but also promotes the development of scientific research in oil & gas exploration and production. The main audience for the work includes industry experts, leading engineers, researchers and technical managers as well as university scholars.
This book provides an introduction to the complex system functions, variability and human interference in ecosystem between the continent and the ocean. It focuses on circulation, transport and mixing of estuarine and coastal water masses, which is ultimately related to an understanding of the hydrographic and hydrodynamic characteristics (salinity, temperature, density and circulation), mixing processes (advection and diffusion), transport timescales such as the residence time and the exposure time. In the area of physical oceanography, experiments using these water bodies as a natural laboratory and interpreting their circulation and mixing processes using theoretical and semi-theoretical knowledge are of fundamental importance. Small-scale physical models may also be used together with analytical and numerical models. The book highlights the fact that research and theory are interactive, and the results provide the fundamentals for the development of the estuarine research.
Can you read the skies? Clouds produce an ever-changing skyscape and a vital clue to predicting whether it's going to rain or shine. This handy little cloud-spotting guide explains: * How to identify each type of cloud * The processes are at work to produce them * The significance they have for our weather * Optical phenomena produced by certain clouds Learn the lost countryside art of cloud reading and understand the most essential of nature's clues and signs.
Climate is a paradigm of a complex system. Analysing climate data is an exciting challenge, which is increased by non-normal distributional shape, serial dependence, uneven spacing and timescale uncertainties. This book presents bootstrap resampling as a computing-intensive method able to meet the challenge. It shows the bootstrap to perform reliably in the most important statistical estimation techniques: regression, spectral analysis, extreme values and correlation. This book is written for climatologists and applied statisticians. It explains step by step the bootstrap algorithms (including novel adaptions) and methods for confidence interval construction. It tests the accuracy of the algorithms by means of Monte Carlo experiments. It analyses a large array of climate time series, giving a detailed account on the data and the associated climatological questions. "....comprehensive mathematical and statistical summary of time-series analysis techniques geared towards climate applications...accessible to readers with knowledge of college-level calculus and statistics." (Computers and Geosciences) "A key part of the book that separates it from other time series works is the explicit discussion of time uncertainty...a very useful text for those wishing to understand how to analyse climate time series." (Journal of Time Series Analysis) "...outstanding. One of the best books on advanced practical time series analysis I have seen." (David J. Hand, Past-President Royal Statistical Society)
Science Is Never "Settled" Thousands of scientists are convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that recent global warming is being caused by emissions of greenhouse gases and that we must act immediately to reduce these emissions or else we may render Earth unlivable for our children and our grandchildren. Some even say "the science is settled." What Really Causes Global Warming examines a broad range of observations that show that greenhouse warming theory is not only misguided, but not physically possible. Recent warming was caused by ozone depletion due to emissions of human-manufactured gases. We solved that problem with the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer stopping the increase in global temperatures by 1998. Volcanoes also deplete ozone. The eruption of Bardarbunga volcano in central Iceland from August 2014 to February 2015-the largest effusive, basaltic, volcanic eruption since 1783-caused 2015 to be the hottest year on record. How can we adapt? "The work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world."- Michael Crichton, 2003
This book provides climate students with the basic scientific background to climate change management. Students will learn about international and national approaches to climate change management defined in voluntary initiatives as well as in national law and international agreements. The book describes mitigation and adaptation measures, monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, and strategies for achieving a low-carbon economy, including green finance. This book combines theory and practice, introducing students to the conceptual background but also taking a professional and technical approach with case studies and low carbon toolkits. Filled with didactic elements such as concept schemes, tables, charts, figures, examples, as well as questions and answers at the end of the chapters, this book aims to engage critical thinking and the discussion of important topics of our days. The low-carbon strategy is one of the answers to limiting the greenhouse effect on our planet. This strategy is to minimize the overall carbon consumption in the life cycle of the products we consume, from the extraction of raw materials to the end of their life. The future is being built today. This book will guide its readers along the path of imagining and realizing a low-carbon economy."
21. Simulating Future Climate G. J. Boer 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489 2 International Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . 490 3 Simulating Historical and Future Climate 492 4 Climate Change in the 20th Century . . . 495 5 Simulating Future Climate Change 498 6 Climate Impact, Adaptation, and Mitigation 501 7 Summary . 502 Index 505 PREFACE Numerical modeling ofthe global atmosphere has entered a new era. Whereas atmospheric modeling was once the domain ofa few research units at universities or government laboratories, it can now be performed almost anywhere thanks to the affordability of computing power. Atmospheric general circulation models (GCMs) are being used by a rapidly growing scientific community in a wide range of applications. With widespread interest in anthropogenic climate change, GCMs have a role also in informing policy discussions. Many of the scientists using GCMs have backgrounds in fields other than atmospheric sciences and may be unaware of how GCMs are constructed. Recognizing this explosion in the application of GCMs, we organized a two week course in order to give young scientists who are relatively new to the field of atmospheric modeling a thorough grounding in the basic principles on which GCMs are constructed, an insight into their strengths and weaknesses, and guid ance on how meaningful numerical experiments are formulated and analyzed. Sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other institu tions, this Advanced Study Institute (ASI) took place May 25-June 5, 1998, at II Ciocco, a remote hotel on a Tuscan hillside in Italy."
Snowflakes are one of nature's most fascinating wonders. Learn how snowflakes form with this fun STEAM book perfect for 1st grade students and early readers. Created in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution, this STEAM book will ignite a curiosity about STEAM topics through real-world examples. It features a hands-on STEAM challenge that is perfect for makerspaces and that guides students step-by-step through the engineering design process. Make STEAM career connections with career advice from actual Smithsonian employees working in STEAM fields. Introduce early science topics to young readers with this STEAM book that is ideal for 1st grade students or ages 5-7.
Written by leading experts in optical radar, or lidar, this book brings all the recent practices up-to-date. With a Foreword by one of the founding fathers in the area. Its broad cross-disciplinary scope should appeal to scientists ranging from the view of optical sciences to environmental engineers. Optical remote sensing has matured to become a lead method for cross-disciplinary research. This new multi-authored book reviews the state-of-the-art in a readable monograph.
Wallace and Hobbs' original edition of "Atmospheric Science" helped
define the field nearly 30 years ago, and has served as the
cornerstone for most university curriculums. Now students and
professionals alike can use this updated classic to understand
atmospheric phenomena in the context of the latest discoveries and
technologies, and prepare themselves for more advanced study and
real-life problem solving.
This open access book serves as a reference for the key elements and their significance of Klaus Hasselmann's work on climate science and on ocean wave research, all based on a rigorous and deeply physical thinking. It summarizes the original articles (mostly from the 1970 and 1980s; some of which are hard to find nowadays) and brings them in a present-day context. From 1975 until 2000, he was (founding) Director of the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology, which he made to one of the world-leading academic institutions. He first made the issue of anthropogenic climate change accessible to analysis and prediction and later transformed climate science into a significant factor in forming public policy. The book is written by co-workers and colleagues of Klaus Hasselmann, who-many under his immediate supervision-joined him in this effort. With this background, they present the key achievements and assess the significance of these for the present state of knowledge and scientific practice.
This book provides two state-of-the-art quantitative techniques to determine ultra-trace rare earth elements (REEs) in natural carbonates using solution nebulization-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SN-ICPMS) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) with respective applications were presented in this dissertation. These techniques were applied to natural carbonates, including corals and stalagmites, to understand volcano eruptions and the impacts on modern biosystem and paleoclimate regimes. In the first SN-ICPMS protocol, direct measurements for femtogram quantity carbonate samples without chemical separation steps can offer accurate and high-precision analysis (+/-1.9-6.5%, 2 ) with a high sample throughput of 8-10 samples/hr routinely. Application to modern Porites corals collected from South China Sea region, the anomalies of REE contents and Al/Ca ratios associated with micro-domain images, register modern coral reefs could be exacerbated by volcanic eruptions. In the second protocol, a high-sensitivity quantitative open-cell LA-ICPMS technique has been established to allow direct sampling on stalagmite surface in the atmospheric air. This technique improved limits of detection down to sub-ng/g range and promises analyses of carbonate REE profiles at the single digit parts-per-billion (ppb) levels. Application to a 15-cm stalagmite collected from East Timor reveals two peaks of REE contents by at least one order of magnitude, possibly due to volcanic ash preserved in stalagmite. Both improved SN-ICPMS and LA-ICPMS techniques highlight the high-sensitivity and high-temporal-resolution carbonate REE analyses for corals and stalagmites, with great potential to other natural carbonates such as travertine, tufa, and flowstone, benefit our understanding of paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental dynamics.
This book describes essential concepts of, and the status quo in, the field of ionospheric space weather. It explains why our society on planet Earth and moving outwards into space cannot work safely, function efficiently, or progress steadily without committed and comprehensive research initiatives addressing space weather. These initiatives must provide space environment specifications, warnings, and forecasts, all of which need to be timely, accurate and reliable. Cause and effect models of the Earth's ionosphere are discussed in terms of the spatial and temporal dimensions of background variability, storms, gradients, irregularities, and waves in both current and long-term research activities. Starting from dynamic processes on the Sun, in the interplanetary medium, and in the Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and atmosphere, the text focuses on the dominant features of the plasma medium under normal and extreme conditions over the European zone during the last few Solar Cycles. One of the book's most unique features is a series of fundamental examples that offer profound insights into ionospheric climate and weather. Various approaches for acquiring and disseminating the necessary data and forecasting analyses are discussed, and interesting analogies are observed between terrestrial and space weather - both of which could produce lasting social consequences, with not only academic but also concrete economic implications. The book's primary goal is to foster the development of ionospheric space weather products and services that are capable of satisfying the ever-growing demand for space-based technology, and are ready for the society of the not-so-distant future.
Climate hazards are the world's most widespread, deadliest and costliest natural disasters. Knowledge of climate hazard dynamics is critical since the impacts of climate change, population growth, development projects and migration affect both the impact and severity of disasters. Current global events highlight how hazards can lead to significant financial losses, increased mortality rates and political instability. This book examines climate hazard crises in contemporary Asia, identifying how hazards from the Middle East through South and Central Asia and China have the power to reshape our globalised world. In an era of changing climates, knowledge of hazard dynamics is essential to mitigating disasters and strengthening livelihoods and societies across Asia. By integrating human exposure to climate factors and disaster episodes, the book explores the environmental forces that drive disasters and their social implications. Focusing on a range of Asian countries, landscapes and themes, the chapters address several scales (province, national, regional), different hazards (drought, flood, temperature, storms, dust), environments (desert, temperate, mountain, coastal) and issues (vulnerability, development, management, politics) to present a diverse, comprehensive evaluation of climate hazards in Asia. This book offers an understanding of the challenges climate hazards present, their critical nature and the effort needed to mitigate climate hazards in 21st-century Asia. Climate Hazard Crises in Asian Societies and Environments is vital reading for those interested and engaged in Asia's development and well-being today and will be of interest to those working in Geography, Development Studies, Environmental Sciences, Sociology and Political Science.
Aristotle's Meteorology influenced generations of speculation about the earth sciences - ranging from atmospheric phenomena to earthquakes. The commentary of John Philoponus (6th century AD) on the opening three chapters of Meteorology is here translated for the first time into English by Dr Inna Kupreeva, building on the work of L.G. Westerink. Philoponus - who today is increasingly respected as a philosopher in his own right - here engages critically with Aristotle's views about the building-blocks of our world, its size and relationship to other heavenly bodies, and reception of warmth from the sun. This volume will be of interest to all students of ancient and medieval philosophy, history and philosophy of science.
It is not possible to understand the present or future climate unless scientists can account for the enormous and rapid cycles of glaciation that have taken place over the last million years, and which are expected to continue into the future. A great deal has happened in the theory of the ice ages over the last decade, and it is now widley accepted that ice ages are driven by changes in the Earth's orbit. The study of ice ages is very inter-disciplinary, covering geology, physics, glaciology, oceanography, atmospheric science, planetary orbit calculations astrophysics and statistics.
If one surveys the development of wind engineering, one comes to the conclusion that the challenge of urban climatology is one of the most important remaining tasks for the wind engineers. But what distinguishes wind engineering in urban areas from conventional wind engineering? Principally, the fact that the effects studied are usually unique to a particular situation, requiring consideration of the surroundings of the buildings. In the past, modelling criteria have been developed that make it possible to solve environmental problems with great confidence, and studies validated the models: at least in a neutrally stratified atmosphere. The approach adopted in the book is that of applied fluid mechanics, since this forms the basis for the evaluation of the urban wind field. Variables for air quality or loads are problem specific, or even random, and methods for studying them are based on risk analysis, which is also presented. Criteria are developed for a systematic approach to urban wind engineering problems, including parameter studies. The five sections of the book are: Fundamentals of urban boundary layer and dispersion; Forces on complex structures in built-up areas; Air pollution in cities; Numerical solution techniques; and Posters. A subject index is included. |
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