Numerical Weather and Climate Prediction

by Thomas Tomkins Warner

Overview

This textbook provides a comprehensive yet accessible treatment of weather and climate prediction, for graduate students, researchers and professionals. It teaches the strengths, weaknesses and best practices for the use of atmospheric models. It is ideal for the many scientists who use such models across a wide variety of applications. The book describes the different numerical methods, data assimilation, ensemble methods, predictability, land-surface modeling, climate modeling and downscaling, computational fluid-dynamics models, experimental designs in model-based research, verification methods, operational prediction, and special applications such as air-quality modeling and flood prediction. This volume will satisfy everyone who needs to know about atmospheric modeling for use in research or operations. It is ideal both as a textbook for a course on weather and climate prediction and as a reference text for researchers and professionals from a range of backgrounds: atmospheric science, meteorology, climatology, environmental science, geography, and geophysical fluid mechanics/dynamics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521513890
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/02/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	550
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Tom Warner was a Professor in the Department of Meteorology at the Pennsylvania State University before accepting his current joint appointment with the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. His career has involved teaching and research in numerical weather prediction and mesoscale meteorological processes. He has published on these and other subjects in numerous professional journals. His recent research and teaching has focused on atmospheric processes, operational weather prediction, and arid-land meteorology. He is the author of Desert Meteorology (2004), also published by Cambridge University Press.

Table of Contents

Preface; List of acronyms; List of symbols; 1. Introduction; 2. The governing systems of equations; 3. Numerical solutions to the equations; 4. Physical-process parameterizations; 5. Modeling surface processes; 6. Model initialization; 7. Ensemble methods; 8. Predictability; 9. Verification methods; 10. Experimental design in model-based research; 11. Techniques for analyzing model output; 12. Operational numerical weather prediction; 13. Statistical post processing of model output; 14. Coupled special-applications models; 15. Computational fluid-dynamics models; 16. Climate modeling and downscaling; Appendix. Suggested code structure and experiments for a simple shallow-fluid model; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

‘Numerical Weather and Climate Prediction is an excellent book for those who want a comprehensive introduction to numerical modeling of the atmosphere and Earth system, whether their interest is in weather forecasting, climate modeling, or many other applications of numerical models. The book is comprehensive, well written, and contains clear and informative illustrations.’ Dr. Richard A. Anthes, President, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder

‘Tom Warner's book is a rich, effectively written and comprehensive detailed summary of the field of atmospheric modeling from local to global scales. It should be in the library of all meteorologists, climate researchers, and other scientists who are interested in the capabilities, strengths and weaknesses of modeling.’ Professor Roger A. Pielke, Sr., Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins

‘Tom Warner has taught Numerical Weather and Climate Prediction courses for over thirty years at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He also has been one of the principle developers of numerical models widely used in the atmospheric science community, and has a long history of applying such codes. This extensive background gives Professor Warner a unique insight into how models work, how to use them, where their problems lie, and how to explain all of this to students. His book assumes students have a basic understanding of atmospheric science. It covers all aspects of modeling one might expect, such as numerical techniques, but also some that might be unexpected such as ensemble modeling, initialization, and error growth. Today most students have become model users instead of model developers. Fewer and fewer peer into the models they use beyond the narrow regions that may directly interest them. With hundreds of thousands of lines of code, and groups of developers working on individual parts of the code, very few can say they truly understand all the parts of a model. Professor Warner’s textbook should help both the student and the more advanced user of codes better appreciate and understand the numerical models that have come to dominate atmospheric science.’ Professor Brian Toon, Chair, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder

‘Tom's new book covers an impressive range of need-to-know material spanning traditional and cutting-edge atmospheric modeling topics. It should be required reading for all model users and aspiring model developers, and it will be a required text for my NWP students.’ Professor David R. Stauffer, Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University

‘The book addresses many practical issues in modern numerical weather prediction. It is particularly suitable for the students and scientists who use numerical models for their research and applications. While there have already been a few excellent textbooks that provide fundamental theory of NWP, this book offers complementary materials, which is useful for understanding of key components of operational numerical weather forecasting.’ Professor Zhaoxia Pu, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah

From the Publisher