Descriptive Physical Oceanography: An Introduction

Descriptive Physical Oceanography, Sixth Edition, provides an introduction to the field with an emphasis on large-scale oceanography based mainly on observations. Topics covered include the physical properties of seawater, heat and salt budgets, instrumentation, data analysis methods, introductory dynamics, oceanography and climate variability of each of the oceans and of the global ocean, and brief introductions to the physical setting, waves, and coastal oceanography. This updated version contains ocean basin descriptions, including ocean climate variability, emphasizing dynamical context; new chapters on global ocean circulation and introductory ocean dynamics; and a new companion website containing PowerPoint figures, lecture and study guides, and practical exercises for analyzing a global ocean data set using Java OceanAtlas. This text is ideal for undergraduates and graduate students in marine sciences and oceanography.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction to descriptive physical oceanography2. Ocean dimensions, shapes and bottom materials3. Physical properties of seawater4. Typical distributions of water characteristics5. Mass, salt and heat budgets and wind forcing6. Data analysis concepts and observational methods7. Dynamical processes for descriptive ocean circulation8. Gravity waves, tides, and coastal oceanography9. Atlantic Ocean10. Pacific Ocean11. Indian Ocean12. Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas13. Southern Ocean14. Global circulation and water properties Supplemental texts (web only): Chapter S1: Brief history of physical oceanography; Chapter S7: (expanded) Dynamical processes for descriptive ocean circulation; Chapter S8: Gravity waves, tides, and coastal oceanography (additional materials); Chapter S15: Climate and the oceans; Chapter S16: Instruments and Methods

About the Author :
Lynne Talley is a Professor of Oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), University of California San Diego. Lynne is a seagoing oceanographer with research interests in the water mass distributions and circulation of the world ocean. She is a graduate of Oberlin College (B.A. in physics) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program (Ph.D. in physical oceanography). She has been an editor of the Journal of Physical Oceanography and has served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (AR4 and AR5), many committees of the National Academy of Sciences, and planning and steering committees for major field programs, including the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) of the 1990s and the U.S. Global Ocean Carbon and Repeat Hydrography Program. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, the Oceanography Society, and the American Meteorological Society. George Pickard (1913-2007) was a Professor of Oceanography at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and was Director of the UBC Institute of Oceanography from 1958 to 1978. He received his B.A. and his Ph.D. in physics from Oxford. He was appointed to the UBC physics department after service in WWII. George was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Canada, and the National Geographic Society. James Swift is a Research Oceanographer at SIO. Jim is a seagoing oceanographer with research interests in Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas water masses and circulation. He frequently leads expeditions to all parts of the world ocean. His B.S. in physics is from Case Western Reserve University, and his Ph.D. is in physical oceanography from the University of Washington. He is the director of the CLIVAR and Carbon Hydrographic Data Office (formerly the WOCE Hydrographic Programme Office), and scientific advisor of SIO's Oceanographic Data Facility. He oversees operations of the NSF-supported university contribution to the U.S. Global Ocean Carbon and Repeat Hydrography Program.

Review :
"This book and ancillary web-based appendices are a valuable reference for the modern-day seabird ecologist, providing a wealth of baseline information and serving as a language guide for describing physical oceanography…I highly recommend this updated classic text on descriptive physical oceanography." --Marine Ornithology Volume 40, No. 1, 2012