[AO discussion] ug text recommendation

[Noboru Nakamura]

Shafer,

I think the recommendation depends on your course's emphasis.  At the  
level you are aiming at, I assume "weather/climate" cannot be just  
fluid dynamics but has to present the atmosphere and ocean (plus  
geosphere and biosphere) as interacting elements of the climate  
system, including the radiation balance of the planet.  I only looked  
at the precursor version of Marshall and Plumb on the web and they  
seem to attempt at this, but yes perhaps at a somewhat advanced level.

I too in the past looked for a good undergraduate text on the  
subject, and I wasn't completely satisfied.  Wells (2nd Ed) is a  
decent book (albeit the glitches that other commentators pointed  
out), but it cannot be a one-stop reference for modern climate  
dynamics.  In the upper-class undergraduate course "Atmosphere and  
Ocean in Motion," I use Wallace and Hobbs (2nd Ed; the first two  
chapters are an excellent intro to climate system) and Stewart's open  
source Physical Oceanography text (http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/ 
resources/ocng_textbook/contents.html) for reading assignments, but I  
use my own lecture notes and problem sets.  Typical lab  
demonstrations include Coriolis force, sink vortex (hurricanes),  
Taylor-Proudman vs thermal winds, jetstream, and Stommel-Arons.  It  
will be good if the text fully explains the demonstrations (as in  
Marshall and Plumb), but a simple show-and-tell is usually enough to  
grab the students' attention; you can easily expand your lectures  
around the demos and connect with theories and observations.

Maybe we'll talk about these in depth at the upcoming teaching workshop.
http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~nnn/workshop/

Cheers,

Noboru Nakamura
Department of Geophysical Sciences
University of Chicago


> Shafer,
>
> Yes, I can highly recommend it since it conveys the author's great  
> insight and love of the ocean system. The only black spot is a  
> erroneous explanation of the Coriolis effect, following the common  
> Hadley (1735) explanation, if I remember correctly. Hopefully that  
> has changed in the new edition. For a correct one, consult Roland  
> Stull's book on practical meteorology.
>
> Regarding the Hadley explanation, I have just had a paper accepted  
> by the Roy Met Soc where I show that it not only partly wrong, but  
> 100% wrong: the differences of speeds of the latitudes has NOTHING  
> at all to do with the Coriolis effect.
>
> There is also a good book on dynamics of ocean and atmosphere by a  
> Belgian-American author whose double name I cannot remember just now.
>
> Anders
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: discuss-bounces at atmosocean.org on behalf of Remi Tailleux
> Sent: Wed 12/12/2007 10:01 PM
> To: shafer at cims.nyu.edu; discuss at atmosocean.org
> Subject: Re: [AO discussion] ug text recommendation
>
>    Hi Shafer,
>
> you may have a look at Neil Wells textbook, Atmosphere/Ocean a  
> physical
> introduction, Wiley, which although somewhat dated (a new edition is
> underway), seems an appropriate introduction at the undergrad level  
> you are
> referring to....
>
> Good luck,
> best wishes,
> Remi.
>
> On Dec 12 2007, Shafer Smith wrote:
>
> >Dear colleagues,
> >
> > I'm looking for a recommendation for an undergraduate text on
> > weather/climate. In particular, looking for something one notch  
> (or half
> > notch) lower level than the new book by Marshall and Plumb. As
> > calibration, the course on which Marshall and Plumb is based at  
> MIT has a
> > prerequisite of multivariate calculus and physics I; I'm shooting  
> for
> > something appropriate to students who know 1d calculus and a little
> > physics. Ideally the course will employ rotating tank  
> demonstrations. Any
> > comments or recommendations welcome!
> >
> >Thanks in advance,
> >Shafer
> >
> >
>
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