Geophysical Fluid Dynamics

This second edition of the widely acclaimed Geophysical Fluid Dynamics by Joseph Pedlosky offers the reader a high-level, unified treatment of the theory of the dynamics of large-scale motions of the oceans and atmosphere. Revised and updated, it includes expanded discussions of * the fundamentals of geostrophic turbulence * the theory of wave-mean flow interaction * thermocline theory * finite amplitude barocline instability.

This textbook introduces step by step the basic numerical methods to solve the equations governing the motion of the atmosphere and ocean, and describes how to develop a set of corresponding instructions for the computer as part of a code. Today's computers are powerful enough to allow 7-day forecasts within hours, and modern teaching of the subject requires a combination of theoretical and computational approaches.

This book grew out of lectures on geophysical fluid dynamics delivered over many years at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology by the author (and, with regard to some parts of the book, by his colleagues).

This book describes the derivation of the equations of motion of fluids as well as the dynamics of ocean and atmospheric currents on both large and small scales through the use of variational methods. In this way the equations of Fluid and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics are re-derived making use of a unifying principle, that is Hamilton’s Principle of Least Action.

This scholarly text provides an introduction to the numerical methods used to model partial differential equations, with focus on atmospheric and oceanic flows. The book covers both the essentials of building a numerical model and the more sophisticated techniques that are now available.

The material in this book is based predominantly on my recent work. It is the first monograph on the subject, though some support material may overlap other monographs. The investigation of wave packets and their bi­ furcations is very interesting, and useful theoretically and in practice, not only in geophysical fluid dynamics, which is the field to which the theory is being applied here, but also in other fields in mathematics and the natural sciences.