Description

Cirrus clouds are high, thin, tropospheric clouds composed predominately of ice. In the last ten years, considerable work has shown that cirrus is widespread--more common than previously believed--and has a significant impact on climate and global change. As the next generation weather satellites are being designed, the impact of cirrus on remote sensing and the global energy budget must be recognized and accommodated. This book, the first to be devoted entirely to cirrus clouds, captures the state of knowledge of cirrus and serves as a practical handbook as well. Each chapter is based on an invited review talk presented at Cirrus, a meeting hosted by the Optical Society of America and co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society. All aspects of cirrus clouds are covered, an approach that reaches into diverse fields. Topics include: the definition of cirrus, cirrus climatologies, nucleation, evolution and dissipation, mixed-phase thermodynamics, crystallinity, orientation mechanisms, dynamics, scattering, radiative transfer, in situ sampling, processes that produce or influence cirrus (and vice versa), contrails, and the influence of cirrus on climate.

Reviews

"An outgrowth of a 1998 conference held in Baltimore, Maryland, this title brings together the latest research on cirrus clouds, which until recently had received little attention. Contemporary studies have shown that these clouds can have an effect on climate change, and the book explores this subject, focusing on the interrelationships of cirrus clouds with the global radiation budget and remote sensing systems. Many other cirrus topics are addressed as well, including their history and definition, structural and optical properties, evolution and dissipation, radiative transfer, and anthropogenic effects."--Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

"This text presents in an edited book form the invited papers from an October 1998 meeting, held in Baltimore and sponsored by the Optical Society of America (OSA). This was the first ever international scientific meeting devoted to cirrus clouds. The twenty-one chapters provide a technical survey of cirrus clouds, and is intended to fill the large gap between elementary treatments of cirrus and advanced forefront research papers. A sampling of topics includes the history and definition of cirrus, ice crystals in cirrus, satellite remote sensing, ground-based remote sensing, contrail cirrus, subvisual cirrus, and cirrus, climate and global change. For cirrus researchers, and other interested scientists new to the field, including students, meterologists, atmospheric chemists, nucleation specialists, crystallographers, and aerodynamicists."--SciTech Book News

Product Details

504 pages; 184 halftones/line arts/line illus; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-513072-0ISBN10: 0-19-513072-3