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 environmental science 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.

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. Armed with some understanding of these topics, the interested student will be able to grasp the essential physics behind important issues of current concern, such as the amplification of the greenhouse effect and associated questions of climatic change, the Antarctic ozone hole and global depletion of ozone, as well as more familiar processes such as the formation of raindrops and the development of weather systems.