This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS AND REACTING GAS FLOWS is in part the proceedings of a workshop which was an integral part of the 1986-87 IMA program on SCIENTIFIC COMPUTATION. We are grateful to the Scientific Committee: Bjorn Engquist (Chairman), Roland Glowinski, Mitchell Luskin and Andrew Majda for planning and implementing an exciting and stimulating year-long program. We especially thank the Workshop Organizers, Bjorn Engquist, Mitchell Luskin and Andrew Majda, for organizing a workshop which brought together many of the leading researchers in the area of computational fluid dynamics. George R. Sell Hans Weinberger PREFACE Computational fluid dynamics has always been of central importance in scientific computing. It is also a field which clearly displays the essential theme of interaction between mathematics, physics, and computer science. Therefore, it was natural for the first workshop of the 1986- 87 program on scientific computing at the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications to concentrate on computational fluid dynamics. In the workshop, more traditional fields were mixed with fields of emerging importance such as reacting gas flows and non-Newtonian flows. The workshop was marked by a high level of interaction and discussion among researchers representing varied "schools of thought" and countries.

The general area of geophysical fluid mechanics is truly interdisciplinary. Now ideas from statistical physics are being applied in novel ways to inhomogeneous complex systems such as atmospheres and oceans. In this book, the basic ideas of geophysics, probability theory, information theory, nonlinear dynamics and equilibrium statistical mechanics are introduced and applied to large time-selective decay, the effect of large scale forcing, nonlinear stability, fluid flow on a sphere and Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The book is the first to adopt this approach and it contains many recent ideas and results. Its audience ranges from graduate students and researchers in both applied mathematics and the geophysical sciences. It illustrates the richness of the interplay of mathematical analysis, qualitative models and numerical simulations which combine in the emerging area of computational science.