Atmospheric physics has a long history as a serious scientific discipline, extending back at least as far as the late seventeenth century. Today it is a rich and fascinating subject, sustained by detailed global observations and underpinned by solid theoretical foundations. It provides an essential tool for tackling a wide range of environmental questions, on local, regional and global scales. Although the solutions to vital and challenging problems concerning weather forecasting and climate prediction rely heavily on the use of supercomputers, they rely even more on the imaginative application of soundly based physical insights.

This book is intended as an introductory working text for third- or fourth-year undergraduates studying atmospheric physics as part of a physics, meteorology, or earth and planetary sciences degree course. It should also be useful for graduate students who are studying atmospheric physics for the first time and for students of applied mathematics, physical chemistry and engineering who have an interest in the atmosphere. Physics undergraduates, in particular, will discover that a sound understanding of atmospheric physics can be built up in the same quantitative and logical manner as the other areas of physics that they encounter in their courses.

Modern scientific study of the atmosphere draws on many branches of physics. I believe that a balanced introductory course in atmospheric physics should include at least some atmospheric thermodynamics, radiative transfer, atmospheric fluid dynamics and elementary atmospheric chemistry.