The Atmosphere: An Introduction to Meteorology / Edition 12

by Frederick K. Lutgens, Edward J. Tarbuck, Dennis G Tasa

Overview

The Atmosphere: An Introduction to Meteorology remains the standard introduction in its field, reinforcing basic concepts with everyday, easy-to-grasp examples. This revision retains the hallmarks professors have come to expect from Tarbuck and Lutgens: a friendly, largely non-technical narrative, timely coverage of recent atmospheric events, and carefully crafted artwork by leading science illustrator Dennis Tasa.

The Twelfth Edition maintains a student-friendly approach while evolving to address various course challenges and trends. New digital visualization and assessment tools are now available on MyMeteorologyLab, a new resource that both encourages student self-study and enables instructors to manage their courses online, with customizable assessments for students. Each chapter in this revision is organized by a new active learning path to help guide and engage non-science majors. A greater focus on popular and increasingly important Severe & Hazardous Weather applications, new critical visual analysis Eye on the Atmosphere features, as well as new discussions of the real-world career opportunities of meteorology with Professional Profile essays, make the science both relevant and exciting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780321756312
Publisher:	Prentice Hall
Publication date:	01/10/2012
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	10.90(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Fred Lutgens and Ed Tarbuck are professors emeriti from Illinois Central College. They have been good friends and colleagues since 1970. Between them, they have more than 60 years of experience teaching geoscience to undergraduates, and both have been recognized with awards as excellent and inspiring professors.

Lutgens and Tarbuck published their first college text, Earth Science, in 1976. That book, winner of the McGuffy Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association, is now in its thirteenth edition. In 1983, as the first edition of Earth was being prepared, renowned geoscience illustrator Dennis Tasa joined the author team. Since then, the three have collaborated on more than 25 projects as the dominant author team franchise in the physical geosciences.

Read an Excerpt

PREFACE:

Preface

There are few aspects of the physical environment that influence our daily lives more than the phenomena we collectively call weather. Newspapers, magazines, and television stations regularly report a wide range of weather events as major news stories—an obvious reflection of people's interest and curiosity about the atmosphere. We also face important environmental problems related to the atmosphere. Such issues as air pollution, ozone depletion, and global warming require our attention. A basic meteorology course can take advantage of our interest and curiosity about the weather as well as our desire to understand the impact that people have on the atmospheric environment.

The Atmosphere: An Introduction to Meteorology, Eighth Edition, is designed to meet the needs of students who enroll in such a course. It is our hope that the knowledge gained by taking a class and using this book will encourage many to actively participate in bettering the environment, and others may be sufficiently stimulated to continue their study of meteorology. Equally important, however, is our belief that a basic understanding of the atmosphere and its processes will greatly enhance appreciation of our planet and thereby enrich the reader's life.

In addition to being informative and up-to-date, a major goal of The Atmosphere is to meet the need of beginning students for a readable and user-friendly text, a book that is a highly usable "tool" for learning basic meteorological principles and concepts.

Distinguishing Features

Readability

The language of this book is straightforward and writtento be understood. Clear, readable discussions with a minimum of technical language are the rule. The frequent headings and subheadings help students follow discussions and identify the important ideas presented in each chapter. In the present edition, improved readability was achieved by examining chapter organization and flow and writing in a more personal style. Large portions o) the text were substantially rewritten in an effort to make the material more understandable.

Illustrations and Photographs

Meteorology is highly visual. Therefore, photographs and artwork are a very important part of an introductory book. The Atmosphere, Eighth Edition, contains dozens, of new high-quality photographs that were carefully selected to aid understanding, add realism, and heighten the interest of the reader.

The illustrations in each new edition of The Atmosphere keep getting better and better. In the eighth edition more than 100 pieces of line art are new o> revised. The new art illustrates ideas and concepts more clearly and realistically than ever before. Dennis Tasa, a gifted artist and respected science illustrator, carried out the art program.

Focus on Learning

New to the eighth edition. To assist student learning, every chapter now concludes with a Chapter Summary. When a chapter has been completed, five useful devices help students review. First, the Chapter Summary recaps all the major points. Next the Vocabulary Review provides a checklist of key terms with page references. Learning the language of meteorology helps students learn the material. This is followed by the Review Questions section, which helps students examine their knowledge of significant facts and ideas. In most chapters, Problems, with a quantitative orientation, follow the review questions. Most problems require only basic mathematical skills and allow students to enhance their understanding by applying skills and principles explained in the chapter. Each chapter closes with some suggested Web sites for further exploration. Moreover, students are reminded to visit the all-new Web site for The Atmosphere, Eighth Edition (...

Table of Contents

1 Introduction to the Atmosphere
2 Heating Earth’s Surface and Atmosphere
3 Temperature
4 Moisture and Atmospheric Stability
5 Forms of Condensation and Precipitation
6 Air Pressure and Winds
7 Circulation of the Atmosphere
8 Air Masses
9 Weather Patterns
10 Thunderstorms and Tornadoes
11 Hurricanes
12 Weather Analysis and Forecasting
13 Air Pollution
14 The Changing Climate
15 World Climates
16 Optical Phenomena of the Atmosphere

Appendix A Metric Units
Appendix B Explanation and Decoding of the Daily Weather Map
Appendix C Relative Humidity and Dew- Point Tables
Appendix D Laws Relating to Gases
Appendix E Newton's Laws in Motion
Appendix F Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
Appendix G Climate Data
Glossary
Index

Preface

PREFACE:

Preface

There are few aspects of the physical environment that influence our daily lives more than the phenomena we collectively call weather. Newspapers, magazines, and television stations regularly report a wide range of weather events as major news stories—an obvious reflection of people's interest and curiosity about the atmosphere. We also face important environmental problems related to the atmosphere. Such issues as air pollution, ozone depletion, and global warming require our attention. A basic meteorology course can take advantage of our interest and curiosity about the weather as well as our desire to understand the impact that people have on the atmospheric environment.

The Atmosphere: An Introduction to Meteorology, Eighth Edition, is designed to meet the needs of students who enroll in such a course. It is our hope that the knowledge gained by taking a class and using this book will encourage many to actively participate in bettering the environment, and others may be sufficiently stimulated to continue their study of meteorology. Equally important, however, is our belief that a basic understanding of the atmosphere and its processes will greatly enhance appreciation of our planet and thereby enrich the reader's life.

In addition to being informative and up-to-date, a major goal of The Atmosphere is to meet the need of beginning students for a readable and user-friendly text, a book that is a highly usable "tool" for learning basic meteorological principles and concepts.

Distinguishing Features

Readability

The language of this book is straightforward andwrittento be understood. Clear, readable discussions with a minimum of technical language are the rule. The frequent headings and subheadings help students follow discussions and identify the important ideas presented in each chapter. In the present edition, improved readability was achieved by examining chapter organization and flow and writing in a more personal style. Large portions o) the text were substantially rewritten in an effort to make the material more understandable.

Illustrations and Photographs

Meteorology is highly visual. Therefore, photographs and artwork are a very important part of an introductory book. The Atmosphere, Eighth Edition, contains dozens, of new high-quality photographs that were carefully selected to aid understanding, add realism, and heighten the interest of the reader.

The illustrations in each new edition of The Atmosphere keep getting better and better. In the eighth edition more than 100 pieces of line art are new o> revised. The new art illustrates ideas and concepts more clearly and realistically than ever before. Dennis Tasa, a gifted artist and respected science illustrator, carried out the art program.

Focus on Learning

New to the eighth edition. To assist student learning, every chapter now concludes with a Chapter Summary. When a chapter has been completed, five useful devices help students review. First, the Chapter Summary recaps all the major points. Next the Vocabulary Review provides a checklist of key terms with page references. Learning the language of meteorology helps students learn the material. This is followed by the Review Questions section, which helps students examine their knowledge of significant facts and ideas. In most chapters, Problems, with a quantitative orientation, follow the review questions. Most problems require only basic mathematical skills and allow students to enhance their understanding by applying skills and principles explained in the chapter. Each chapter closes with some suggested Web sites for further exploration. Moreover, students are reminded to visit the all-new Web site for The Atmosphere, Eighth Edition (...

Editorial Reviews

This textbook introduces basic meteorological principles and concepts. The eighth edition expands coverage of environmental issues and atmospheric hazards. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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