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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Remi Tailleux
Sent: Wed 12/12/2007 10:01 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; discuss@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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