This book examines cloud physics.

New textbook on microphysics, thermodynamics and cloud-scale dynamics of clouds and precipitation, for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, researchers and professionals.

This book provides a background to the fundamental principles of parameterization physics for accurate numerical predictions of cloud and precipitation.

An Introduction to Clouds provides a fundamental understanding of clouds, ranging from cloud microphysics to the large-scale impacts of clouds on climate. On the microscale, phase changes and ice nucleation are covered comprehensively, including aerosol particles and thermodynamics relevant for the formation of clouds and precipitation. At larger scales, cloud dynamics, mid-latitude storms and tropical cyclones are discussed leading to the role of clouds on the hydrological cycle and climate. Each chapter ends with problem sets and multiple-choice questions that can be completed online, and important equations are highlighted in boxes for ease of reference. Combining mathematical formulations with qualitative explanations of underlying concepts, this accessible book requires relatively little previous knowledge, making it ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in atmospheric science, environmental sciences and related disciplines.

This book looks at global atmospheric processes from a physical standpoint using available current and past observational data taken from measurements of relevant atmospheric parameters. It describes various aspects of the current atmospheric state and its future evolution, focusing primarily on the energetic balance of the Earth and atmosphere, and taking into consideration the multi-faceted global equilibrium between these two systems, carbon, and water. The analysis presented in this book restricts itself to those objects and processes that allow us to obtain reliable conclusions and numerical estimations, in contrast to current climate models with much larger numbers of parameters for describing the same problems. As a result, in spite of the roughness of numerical parameters, the book unveils a reliable and transparent physical picture of energetic phenomena in the global atmosphere. In particular, it shows that approximately only one-fourth of atmospheric water returns from the atmosphere to the Earth in the form of free molecules. It was shown that the contemporary warming of our planet has an anthropogenic character, and that the average global temperature increases due to an increase of the concentration of atmospheric CO2 molecules, via an increase in atmospheric moisture, as well as an increase in the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere. Accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide plays a subsidiary role in this process and gives approximately one-third in a change of the global temperature, while an increase in the amount of atmospheric water by as little as only 0.3% per year explains the observed warming of the Earth. The book shows how the greenhouse instability of the atmosphere evidently has its origins in the Eocene epoch, presenting an analysis of the influence of various types of global energetic processes on the climate that differs from the official stance on these problems.

Cloud physics has achieved such a voluminous literature over the past few decades that a significant quantitative study of the entire field would prove unwieldy. This book concentrates on one major aspect: cloud microphysics, which involves the processes that lead to the formation of individual cloud and precipitation particles. Common practice has shown that one may distinguish among the following addi tional major aspects: cloud dynamics, which is concerned with the physics respon sible for the macroscopic features of clouds; cloud electricity, which deals with the electrical structure of clouds and the electrification processes of cloud and precipi tation particles; and cloud optics and radar meteorology, which describe the effects of electromagnetic waves interacting with clouds and precipitation. Another field intimately related to cloud physics is atmospheric chemistry, which involves the chemical composition ofthe atmosphere and the life cycle and characteristics of its gaseous and particulate constituents. In view of the natural interdependence of the various aspects of cloud physics, the subject of microphysics cannot be discussed very meaningfully out of context. Therefore, we have found it necessary to touch briefly upon a few simple and basic concepts of cloud dynamics and thermodynamics, and to provide an account of the major characteristics of atmospheric aerosol particles. We have also included a separate chapter on some of the effects of electric fields and charges on the precipitation-forming processes.