Atmospheric Tides: Thermal and Gravitational

Everyone is familiar with the daily changes of air temperature. The barometer shows that these are accompanied by daily changes of mass distribution of the atmosphere, and consequently with daily motions of the air. In the tropics the daily pressure change is evident on the barographs; in temperate and higher latitudes it is not noticeable, being overwhelmed by cyclonic and anticyclonic pressure variations. There too, however, the daily change can be found by averaging the variations over many days; and the same process suffices to show that there is a still smaller lunar tide in the atmosphere, first sought by Laplace. Throughout nearly two centuries these 'tides', thermal and gravitational, have been extensively discussed in the periodical literature of science, although they are very minor phenomena at ground level. This monograph summarizes our present knowledge and theoretical under­ standing of them. It is more than twenty years since the appearance of the one previous monograph on them - by Wilkes - and nearly a decade since they were last comprehensively reviewed, by Siebert. The intervening years have seen many additions to our know­ ledge of the state of the upper atmosphere, and of the tides there, on the basis of measurements by radio, rockets and satellites.

Table of Contents:
1. Introductory and Historical.- 1.1. Introduction: Pytheas, Bacon, Newton and Laplace.- 1.2. The Barometric and Other Daily Variations.- 1.3. Thermal Tides and Kelvin’s Resonance Theory.- 1.4. More Realistic Atmospheric Models.- 1.5. The Phase of S2 (p).- 1.6. Doubts as to the Resonance Theory.- 1.7. Renewed Hope in the Resonance Theory.- 1.8. Atmospheric Oscillations as Studied by Weekes and Wilkes.- 1.9. Rockets Exclude Resonance.- 1.10. Ozone Absorption of Radiation the Main Cause of S2(p).- 1.11. Upper Air Data.- 1.12. Theoretical Calculations of the Diurnal Thermal Tide.- 1.13. Other Features of Atmospheric Oscillations.- 2S. The Solar Daily Atmospheric Oscillations As Revealed By Meteorological Data.- 2S.1. The Material Studied; Ground Level Data.- 2S.2. Harmonic Analysis of S; The Non-Cyclic Variation.- 2S.3. The Seasonal Variation of S.- 2S.4. The World-Wide Distribution of S, Particularly of S(p).- 2S.5. The Daily Variation of Air Temperature T.- 2S.6. The Daily Wind Variation S(V).- 2S.7. Atmospheric Daily Changes above Ground Level.- 2L. The Lunar Atmospheric Tide As Revealed By Meteorological Data.- 2L.1. Introduction.- 2L.2. The Tropical Lunar Air Tide.- 2L.3. The Lunar Air Tide Outside the Tropics.- 2L.4. The Month and the Lunar Day.- 2L.5. Methods of Computation of L from Observed Data; Early Methods Based on Apparent Lunar Time.- 2L.6. The Chapman-Miller (or C-M) Method for Meteorological Variables.- 2L.7. Vector Probable Errors.- 2L.8. The Determination of L2 from Only a Few Meteorological Readings per Day.- 2L.9. The Lunar Semidiurnal Barometric Tide L2 (p).- 2L.10. The Expression of L2 (p) in Spherical Harmonic Functions.- 2L. 11. The Asymmetry of L2 (p) Relative to the Equator, and its Seasonal Variation.- 2L.12. Comparison of L2(p) and S2(p).-2L.13. The Lunar Tidal Wind Variation.- 2L.14. The Lunar Tidal Variation of Air Temperature.- 2L.15. The Lunar Tidal Changes of Height of Various Pressure Levels.- 2L.16. Brief Mention of the Lunar Geomagnetic Tide.- 3. Quantitative Theory Of Atmospheric Tides And Thermal Tides.- 3.1. Introduction.- 3.2. Equations.- 3.3. Methods of Solution.- 3.4. Sources of Excitation.- 3.5. Explicit Solutions.- 3.6. Shortcomings of Present Calculations.- 3.7. Comparison of Theory with Data.- List of Symbols for Chapter 3.- Guide To The Figures And Tables.- References.- Index Of Names.- Index Of Subjects.- Index Of Places.