Physics and Chemistry of Clouds

Clouds affect our daily weather and play key roles in the global climate. Through their ability to precipitate, clouds provide virtually all of the fresh water on Earth and are a crucial link in the hydrologic cycle. With ever-increasing importance being placed on quantifiable predictions - from forecasting the local weather to anticipating climate change - we must understand how clouds operate in the real atmosphere, where interactions with natural and anthropogenic pollutants are common. This textbook provides students - whether seasoned or new to the atmospheric sciences - with a quantitative yet approachable path to learning the inner workings of clouds. Developed over many years of the authors' teaching at Pennsylvania State University, Physics and Chemistry of Clouds is an invaluable textbook for advanced students in atmospheric science, meteorology, environmental sciences/engineering and atmospheric chemistry. It is also a very useful reference text for researchers and professionals.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; 2. The atmospheric setting; 3. Equilibria; 4. Change; 5. Cloud thermodynamics; 6. Cloud formation and evolution; 7. Nucleation; 8. Growth from the vapor; 9. Growth by collection; 10. Evolution of supersaturation; 11. Warm clouds; 12. Cold clouds; 13. Cloud chemistry; 14. Electrification; Appendix A. Cloud classification; Appendix B. Basics of thermodynamics; Appendix C. Boltzmann distribution; Index.

About the Author :
Dennis Lamb is Professor Emeritus of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University. Professor Lamb worked as a researcher for nearly fourteen years at the Desert Research Institute (Reno) before embarking on a teaching career at Pennsylvania State University. With more than forty years of observational and laboratory research experience and more than twenty years teaching cloud physics and atmospheric chemistry at both undergraduate and graduate levels, he now realizes that the best path toward understanding clouds is to understand water itself, at the molecular level. The deeper the understanding, the greater becomes the appreciation of clouds as gate keepers in the water cycle and energy budget of Earth. This book is the culmination of his career studying the physics and chemistry of water and clouds. Hans Verlinde is a Professor of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University. He is an observational meteorologist who has studied clouds in the Antarctic, at the equator and in the Arctic. He is currently the site scientist for the US Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Climate Research Facility at Barrow on the North Slope of Alaska, and he teaches classes in atmospheric thermodynamics, cloud physics, mesoscale meteorology and radar meteorology at Pennsylvania State University.

Review :
'The Lamb and Verlinde book joins the ranks of the classic treatises on clouds. It is ideally suited for a graduate course in cloud physics and chemistry.' John H. Seinfeld, Louis E. Nohl Professor, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) 'At long last an up-to-date textbook is now available on the physics and chemistry of clouds suitable for use by upper division undergraduate students and first-year graduate students. It has now been almost 20 years since the last book on cloud microphysics was published. But this book is so much more than a cloud microphysics book as it encompasses atmospheric chemistry and the basics for all of physical meteorology including atmospheric radiation. The book is truly designed as a textbook rather than a source book as it includes problem sets at the end of each chapter. I think that lecturers and students alike will appreciate this valuable new book.' William R. Cotton, Colorado State University 'This book fills a void that exists between elementary books and those designed as references for researchers. It is the first time that a textbook [has been] published which is designed for graduate level courses and for students that are seasoned or new to the field of cloud physics and chemistry. [It] describes the microphysical and mesoscale processes in clouds and their interactions in a clear and comprehensive way … designed as a textbook, each chapter is concluded with a list of references for further reading and a set of problems … the reader is led through the difficult topics of cloud development in a logical way which [whets] the appetite to investigate in more depth the outstanding issues of this fascinating field. I expect the book to be the main textbook for many years to come.' Zev Levin, Goldemberg Chair Professor in Atmospheric Physics, Tel Aviv University 'It is great that there is a new book at the level of Pruppacher and Klett (1997), that discusses cloud microphysical processes in depth and captures the progress that has been made in the scientific community since then. I'll be happy to use it as a textbook in my graduate class on cloud microphysics.' Ulrike Lohmann, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich '… very valuable … suited for readers such as advanced students in atmospheric science … a very useful and popular textbook in atmospheric physics classes …' Barbara Ervens, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society