![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > Meteorology
The study of the earth's climate requires reliable global data sets to validate numerical simulation models and to identify regional and global fluctuations and trends. This book presents ways to obtain such data from space-borne and ground-based measurements, both passive and active, over the entire electromagnetic spectrum. It describes the basics of such methods together with the most recent advancements and spans the field from clouds and the planetary radiation budget to surface processes and ocean properties. Each subject is backed by extensive reference lists to enable readers to probe more deeply.
The book is a thorough presentation of theoretical and applied aspects of the evaporation and evapotranspiration process supported by data from experimental studies. It is written in a way that the theoretical background of evaporation and evapotranspiration estimation is presented in a simplified manner, comprehensive to most technical readers. The book deals with details of meteorological parameters and monitoring sensors which are needed for estimating evaporation and evapotranspiration. Errors in meteorological parameter measurements are also presented. Estimation errors, strengths, weaknesses and applicability of a wide range of evaporation and evapotranspiration estimation methods are presented along with samples of application to a certain region. Application of newer simpler methods is presented. A new technology, remote sensing application to evaporation and evapotranspiration estimation, is presented. The latest interest in the subject, climate change and evapotranspiration is presented in the last chapter. This book will be beneficial to students, hydrologists, engineers, meteorologists, water managers and others.
This book discusses in detail the planning, design, construction and management of hydraulic structures, covering dams, spillways, tunnels, cut slopes, sluices, water intake and measuring works, ship locks and lifts, as well as fish ways. Particular attention is paid to considerations concerning the environment, hydrology, geology and materials etc. in the planning and design of hydraulic projects. It also considers the type selection, profile configuration, stress/stability calibration and engineering countermeasures, flood releasing arrangements and scouring protection, operation and maintenance etc. for a variety of specific hydraulic structures. The book is primarily intended for engineers, undergraduate and graduate students in the field of civil and hydraulic engineering who are faced with the challenges of extending our understanding of hydraulic structures ranging from traditional to groundbreaking, as well as designing, constructing and managing safe, durable hydraulic structures that are economical and environmentally friendly.
Offering a cross-country examination and comparison of drought awareness and experience, this book shows how scientists, water managers, and policy makers approach drought and water scarcity in arid and semi-arid regions of Spain, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and the United States.
The NATO ARW in Irkutsk was an excellent occasion for the coming together of Eastern and Western scientists who are involved in tropospheric science; the workshop has greatly contributed to the scientific and social understanding among the participants from the many different countries. Many new personal contacts were made which will help to strengthen future collaborations. In particular, the Lake Baikal area and the Limnological Institute offer splendid opportunities for environmental research which, in part, is already on going. For most participants it was the first time to see the impressive nature of the Lake Baikal region. Hopefully, there will be a chance for a follow-up event in Siberia where researchers from the East and West can again meet and engage in fruitful scientific dialogue. The book contains extended abstracts of the lectures and the poster presentations presented at the NATO ARW "Global Atmospheric Change and its Impact on Regional Air Quality" Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, Russian Federation, August 21-27, 2001. The ARW was composed of 22 oral presentations by key lecturers and 6 additional shorter oral presentations from participants. In a special poster session the 36 poster contributions were presented and discussed. Unfortunately not all contributors submitted extended abstracts, however, to compensate two contributions have been added from 2 participants who were originally invited but were unable to attend.
General circulation models state that the central United States (and other mid-latitude continental regions) will become warmer and drier as the result of greenhouse warming. On this premise the dustbowl period of the 1930s was selected as an analogue of climate change and its weather records imposed on the Missouri--Iowa--Kansas region to assess how current agriculture, forestry, water resources and energy and the entire regional economy would be affected. The same climate was also imposed on a MINK region forty years into the future, by which time climate change may actually be felt, to assess whether technological and societal change would alter the region's vulnerability to climate change. Another premise of the study was that people would not suffer the impacts of climate change passively, but would use availabe tools to ease the stress. The rising atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, expected to be the major cause of greenhouse warming, also works to improve plant growth and reduce plant water use. So the effects of this Co2 fertilization' were also considered in the analysis. The results, some of them surprising, of this first, fully-integrated analysis of climate change impacts and responses are reported in this book.
Water is vital for life. Since the dawn of civilization, much effort has been made to harness sources of fresh water. Recent years have raised global awareness of the need for increasing demand of water worldwide, largely because of growing population, rising standard of living, higher demand for energy, and greater appreciation for environmental quality. As an example, the world population has increased threefold in the past five decades. In order to meet the rising water demand, water resources are being developed by building large dams, reservoirs, barrages and weirs across rivers worldwide. The guiding principle for water resources development has been to ensure adequate supply of water for agriculture, domestic use (including fine drinking water), waste disposal, industries, and energy production, with due attention to maintain the ecosystem functions. This development, however, depends on a holistic, cooperative and scientific approach. The basic inputs in the assessment of water resources for a given region are from hydrological data and the subject of hydrology forms the core in achieving sustainable development of water resources. Barring a few exceptions, hydrological data for most river basins are sparse and therefore it is difficult to comprehensively assess their water resources. The major source of water is rainfall which occurs as a result of condensation of atmospheric moisture governed by the science of meteorology.
This book surveys recent developments in numerical techniques for global atmospheric models. It is based upon a collection of lectures prepared by leading experts in the field. The chapters reveal the multitude of steps that determine the global atmospheric model design. They encompass the choice of the equation set, computational grids on the sphere, horizontal and vertical discretizations, time integration methods, filtering and diffusion mechanisms, conservation properties, tracer transport, and considerations for designing models for massively parallel computers. A reader interested in applied numerical methods but also the many facets of atmospheric modeling should find this book of particular relevance.
Based on data from an experiment which ran for ten years, this book summarizes the results of the Atmospheric Physics Department of the St. Petersburg University and the Main Geophysical Observatory. The processed data now forms a rich dataset of spectral values of radiative characteristics under different atmospheric conditions. The analysis of this database clearly shows that the solar radiative absorption in a dusty and cloudy atmosphere is significantly higher than assumed to date. Both graduate students of atmospheric sciences as well as scientists and researchers in the field of meteorology and climatology will find a wealth of new data and information in this monograph.
The content of this book are lectures and research papers presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on -Chemistry of the Unpolluted and Polluted Troposphere-held from September 28 to October 10, 1981, on the Island of Corfu, Greece. The realization of the scientific event was made possible by the sponsorship of the NATO Scientific and Environmental Affairs Division. We must express our gratitude first to this Institution for the important assistance and cooperation we received. For additional assistance we are much obliged to our distinguished co sponsors: Carl Zeiss Werk, Oberkochen, FRGj Biotronik GmbH, Frankfurt, FRGj Bodenseewerk Perkin Elmer u. Co GmbH, Ueberlingen, FRGj and TSI Deutschland Inc., Aachen, FRG. To Mr. Dimitris Bouas, the Director of the Grand Hotel Glyfada, we would like to express our thanks and appreciation for the excellent services. The Center of Environmental Protection of the University of Frankfurt, FRG, conducted the NATO Advanced Study Institute because of the rapidly increased interest in the problems of air chemistry and air pollution. This development has contributed in recent years to a significant expansion of knowledge in the field of atmospheric chemistry, where several of the classic disciplines like meteorology, physics and chemistry have joined in combined research. The Advanced Study Institute offered an ideal opportunity to give a comprehensive survey of the present knowledge in this relatively new field of atmospheric science.
Both fire and climatic variability have monumental impacts on the dynamics of temperate ecosystems. These impacts can sometimes be extreme or devastating as seen in recent El Nino/La Nina cycles and in uncontrolled fire occurrences. This volume brings together research conducted in western North and South America, areas of a great deal of collaborative work on the influence of people and climate change on fire regimes. In order to give perspective to patterns of change over time, it emphasizes the integration of paleoecological studies with studies of modern ecosystems. Data from a range of spatial scales, from individual plants to communities and ecosystems to landscape and regional levels, are included. Contributions come from fire ecology, paleoecology, biogeography, paleoclimatology, landscape and ecosystem ecology, ecological modeling, forest management, plant community ecology and plant morphology. The book gives a synthetic overview of methods, data and simulation models for evaluating fire regime processes in forests, shrublands and woodlands and assembles case studies of fire, climate and land use histories. The unique approach of this book gives researchers the benefits of a north-south comparison as well as the integration of paleoecological histories, current ecosystem dynamics and modeling of future changes.
Epoch-making progress in meteorology and atmospheric science has always been hastened by the development of advanced observational technologies, in particular, radar technology. This technology depends on a wide range of sciences involving diverse disciplines, from electrical engineering and electronics to computer sciences and atmospheric physics. Meteorological radar and atmospheric radar each has a different history and has been developed independently. Particular radar activities have been conducted within their own communities. Although the technology of these radars draws upon many common fields, until now the interrelatedness and interdisciplinary nature of the research fields have not been consistently discussed in one volume containing fundamental theories, observational methods, and results. This book is by two authors who, with long careers in the two fields, one in academia and the other in industry, are ideal partners for writing on the comprehensive science and technology of radars for meteorological and atmospheric observations.
Climate can be defined as an ensemble of many weather phenomena. Clima tologists often use the mean (conventionally the monthly and annual mean) of weather-related parameters to describe climate. The mean value, however, is not all the climate. Climatic changes might occur if certain aspects of the distribution of extreme values change, while the mean does not. Katz and Brown (1992), for example, show from a theoretical viewpoint that in a changing climate, extreme values are determined more by changes in variability than changes in the mean. Possible changes in extreme event frequency receive considerable attention along with the global warming, because extremes directly impact human society and the economy. For most societally sensitive extremes and related changes in their vari ability, an analysis based on daily data becomes necessary. This paper considers two aspects (relative and absolute values) of extreme temperatures on a daily basis. We do not consider spells of extreme days, periods which will likely have greater socio-economic and health impacts (Kalkstein et al., 1996; Wagner, 1999), than individual extreme days.
This book on electromagnetic resonance phenomena describes a general approach to physical problems, ways to solve them, and properties of the solutions obtained. Attention is given to the discussion and interpretation of formal and experimental data and their links to global atmospheric conditions such as the dynamics of global thunderstorm activity, variations of the effective height of the lower ionosphere, etc. Schumann resonance is related to worldwide thunderstorm activity, and simultaneously, to global properties of the lower ionosphere. Transverse resonance is predominantly a local phenomenon containing information on the local height and conductivity of the lower ionosphere and on nearby thunderstorm activity. Transient events in ELF-VLF radio propagation are also treated. These are natural pulsed radio signals and/or abrupt changes of manmade VLF radio signals. The transients associated with cloud-to-ionosphere discharges (red sprites, blue jets, trolls) are discussed, and clarification of the underlying physical ideas and their practical applications to pioneer results achieved in the field recently are emphasised.
The background This volume contains the proceedings of the first International symposium on "Non-C0 Greenhouse Gases: Why and How to 2 Control?" held in Maastricht, The Netherlands from 13-15 Decem ber 1993. Of the known greenhouse gases, political attention to date has been primarily focused on carbon dioxide (C0 ) and the 2 CFCs - the latter because of their interaction with stratospheric ozone. The other greenhouse gases, notably methane (CH ), nitrous 4 oxide (N 0), HCFCs, HFCs and tropospheric ozone and its precur 2 sors nitrogen oxides (NO), carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), may appear collectively to be of equal importance for global warming but have attracted less attention. Nevertheless, a comprehensive approach to climate change respon se, taking into account all sources and sinks of all greenhouse gases, is explicitly allowed in the Framework Convention on Clima te Change. The Netherlands' policy on climate already addresses all greenhouse gases. In order to stimulate the development of international climate policy on this subject, the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment supported the initative of organizing an international symposium on the science and policy of the non-C0 greenhouse gases. An important rationale behind 2 this initative was recognizing that for the non-C0 greenhouse 2 gases, abatement options are available that do not only address other environmental problems but that also do not require the major structural changes in society that an effective CO policy 2 may."
The editors intend that this book conveys the remarkable variety and fundamental importance of the late Helmut E. Landsberg's many contributions to the science of climatology and its practice over a very productive 55-year career. We thank the distinguished authors for their contributions. We also thank Corinne Preston and Charlene Mann for their invaluable word-processing assistance and preparation of camera-ready copy. Finally, we thank Joshua Holland for permission to reproduce his portrait of Landsberg, and Jeanne Moody for preparation of the index. F. Baer N. L. Canfield J. M. Mitchell Editors vii CONTRmUTORS Ferdinand Baer, Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA Norman L. Canfield, Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA Dennis M. Driscoll, Department of Meteorology, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas, USA William H. Haggard, Climatological Consulting Corporation, Asheville, North Carolina, USA David M. Ludlum, Founding Editor, Weatherwise, Princeton, New Jersey, USA Thomas F. Malone, St. Joseph College, West Hartford, Connecticut, USA J. Murray Mitchell, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (retired), McLean, Virginia, USA Timothy R. Oke, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Joseph Smagorinsky, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (retired), Princeton, New Jersey, USA Hessam Taba, World Meteorological Organization (retired), Geneva, Switzerland Morley Thomas, Atmospheric Environment Service (retired), Downsview, Ontario, Canada. IX OVERVIEW Ferdinand Baer Helmut E.
It has been known at least since the end of the century that the polar areas play a very important role in the formation of the Earth's climates. It is also known today that they are the most sensitive regions to climatic change, and are thus perfect case studies for the detection of such changes. The most serious obstacle to the study of climatic and other geographical elements of the polar areas (including the Arctic) has always been the severe climatic conditions which prevail in these regions. Because of these extreme con- tions, research into particular elements of the climatic system (including the atmosphere) began here much later than it did in lower latitudes. For instance, the whole area of the Arctic was not sufficiently covered with a network of meteorological stations until the late 1940s (and even then there were large areas of the central Arctic and the Greenland interior for which no data were available). This is probably why it was not until the start of the 1990s that a body of work began to appear which analysed in any depth climatic variability for the Arctic as a whole. While a considerable number of papers had been p- lished before this period, most of them were local studies presenting highly localised information, providing air temperature measurements but often little else.
Strong atmosphere-hydrology-biosphere feedbacks including human activity affect the rate and sign of changes in the Earth s system and have impacts on socioeconomic relationships. These processes are related to atmospheric circulation, climate and land use changes. Satellite-based and in situ monitoring systems have greatly increased our understanding of variations and changes occurring in the regional climate, atmospheric regime, land cover and water circulation. Coupled numerical models are invoked to describe features, which cannot be caught by observation systems or to predict a future state. This book summarizes the state-of-the-art researches on land cover, atmosphere and water resources of the Eastern Europe region, sets up priorities of major researches in these fields, outlines deficiencies in data and their processing, and develops recommendations for further research directions. Selected papers of the Non-Boreal Eastern Europe NEESPI meeting cover five topics:
The main objective of the workshop was to increase our knowledge of ozone formation and distribution in the troposphere, its relation to precursor (NO and HC species) distribution, how it is affected by transport processes in the troposphere, and to show how the increasing levels of ozone can cause environmental problem. The focus was on the interaction of ozone on regional and global scales. There is mounting evidence that such interactions occur and that the ozone levels are increasing in most of the Northern Hemisphere tropo sphere. A likely source of ozone increase is human activity. As result of this, tropospheric climate may change significantly within a few decades, either through direct effects by ozone itself or indirectly through its effect on other radiatively active trace species. Further more, ozone may have adverse effects on vegetation over large continental areas due to enhanced levels which have been measured to take place. As it is well known that ozone plays a key role in the oxidation of a large number of chemical species in the troposphere, natural as well as man-made, the atmospheric distribution of important trace species like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons could be markedly changed as a result of ozone changes. The rapidly increasing interest in tropospheric ozone, and the key role ozone plays in several atmospheric areas as well the obvious increase in the tropospheric concentration of ozone made ozone a natural choice as a topic for the workshop."
In this book the author has succeeded in presenting the many facets of the globel problems and hazards for our climate and thei r i nterdi scip l inary aspects, as we II as maki ng these under- standable for the non-specialist. In doing this, the author has not restricted himself to an analysis of the difficult problems but has indicated the necessity and the possibilities for ratio- na l so lutions. The book, therefore, can be a va lueb le deci si on- aid for all those who directly or indirectly are in positions of responsibi lity at various levels of administration or in industry end busi ness. We ll-timed precauti onary measures agai nst a g loba l deteri o- ration of cLimate are not only necessary for reasons of environ- mental protection. They are also an economical end political necessity. The measures include the reduction of the combustion of fossi l fue ls, a more rati one l energy uti l ization, as we II as the establishment of a global equilibrium between forest loss and reforestati on. The Federal German Government takes these potential anthro- pogenic climate changes very seriously. In order to obtein better scientific information, the Federal Government has ini- ti ated an i nterdi sci p l i nary nati one l Climate Programme. At the same time, the Federal Republic of Germany supports the relevant activities within the frame of international cooperation.
Thirty-six years before Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and southern Mississippi, the region was visited by one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the United States: Camille. Mark M. Smith offers three highly original histories of the storm's impact in southern Mississippi. In the first essay Smith examines the sensory experience and impact of the hurricane--how the storm rearranged and challenged residents' senses of smell, sight, sound, touch, and taste. The second essay explains the way key federal officials linked the question of hurricane relief and the desegregation of Mississippi's public schools. Smith concludes by considering the political economy of short- and long-term disaster recovery, returning to issues of race and class. "Camille, 1969" offers stories of survival and experience, of the tenacity of social justice in the face of a natural disaster, and of how recovery from Camille worked for some but did not work for others. Throughout these essays are lessons about how we might learn from the past in planning for recovery from natural disasters in the future.
Regional Climate of China is the first volume to present the latest research findings gained over the last decade which has greatly advanced our knowledge of the regional climate researches in China. A distinctive feature of the volume is that it is based on an integration of researches by using the advanced technologies, such as field observation and experiment, satellite information and numerical models in the regional climate studies.
One of the principal concerns in recent years regarding the atmospheric environment has been the formation of ozone and other photo-oxidants over much of Europe in the summer. Ozone is formed in the atmosphere by a complex series of chemical reactions in the presence of sunlight from volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides. As the reactions take place in air flows determined by the detailed meteorological situation, the measurement, interpretation, understanding and modelling of the levels, fluxes and origins of the ozone are extremely difficult. The present volume reviews several of the currently important questions and presents detailed reports from investigators all over the continent. As such, it provides insight into the current scientific views about ozone in Europe. |
You may like...
Shackled - One Woman's Dramatic Triumph…
Mariam Ibraheem, Eugene Bach
Paperback
Building Scalable Network Services…
Cheng Jin, Sugih Jamin, …
Hardcover
R2,735
Discovery Miles 27 350
|