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Preface to the Second Edition I have taken the opportunity afforded by the appearance of a second edition of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics to make a number of revisions and additions to the text. Since the purpose of the book is largely pedagogic, the changes are intended to strengthen the treatment of the fundamentals of the subject rather than bringing up to the current moment the results of ongoing research in the field as would be appropriate for a research monograph. Chapter 3 and 4 now contain a discussion of the elements of geostrophic turbulence whose treatment was lacking in the first edition. In Chapter 5, I have substantially replaced Section 5.13 with a new discussion of the role of topography in the wind-driven circulation with an example of its influence much more striking than earlier. Chapter 6 is the most extensively revised section of the book. Sections on wave-mean flow interaction and the theory of the thermocline have been completely rewritten reflecting the increase in understanding of these fundamental subjects since the preparation of the first edition. Chapter 6 also contains a new derivation of the planetary and synoptic scale geostrophic potential vorticity equations. The new derivation supplements the more traditional derivation of the first edition and illuminates the relationship between the two regimes. In Chapter 7, I have reworked the section on the classical Charney problem in a way which should considerably simplify and illuminate the essential aspects of the problem. The discussion of the finite amplitude problem has been completely rewritten to offer the reader an introduction to the role of dissipation in nonlinear dynamics and the appearance of limit cycle and chaotic behavior. Finally, Chapter 7 has a new section describing some useful theorems on the instability of nonparallel flows. I am indebted to several correspondents for pointing out errors in the first edition which are corrected herein. The preparation of this second edition was done during a sabbatical year in Venice, Italy. I gratefully acknowledge the continuing support of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution during the period of the sabbatical. I wish also to express my gratitude to the staff of the Istituto per l'Studio della Dinamica delle Grandi Massi for their warm hospitality during the period of the preparation of the revisions for this book. To paraphrase Henry James on the subject, to be able to work and live in Venice led perhaps to the greatest state of happiness consistent with the preservation of reason. Woods Hole September 1986 Joseph Pedlosky Preface to the First Edition The content of this book is based largely on the core curriculum in geophysical fluid dynamics which I and my colleagues in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at The University of Chicago have taught for the past decade. Our purpose in developing a core curriculum was to provide advanced undergraduates and entering graduate students a coherent and systematic introduction to the theory of geophysical fluid dynamics. The curriculum and the outline of this book were devised to form a sequence of courses of roughly one and a half academic years (five academic quarters) in length. The goal of the sequence is to help the student rapidly advance to the point where independent study and research are practical expectations. It quickly became apparent that several topics (e.g., some aspects of potential theory) usually thought of as forming the foundations of a fluid-dynamics curriculum were merely classical rather than essential and could be, however sadly, dispensed with for our purposes. At the same time, the diversity of interests of our students is so great that no curriculum can truly be exhaustive in such a curriculum period. I think that the best that can be achieved as a compromise is a systematic introduction to some important segment of the total scope of geophysical fluid dynamics which is illustrative of its most fruitful methods. The focus of this book is thus the application of fluid mechanics to the dynamics of large-scale flows in the oceans and the atmosphere. The overall viewpoint taken is a theoretical, unified approach to the study of both the atmosphere and the oceans. One of the key features of geophysical fluid dynamics is the need to combine approximate forms of the basic tfluid-dynamical equations of Ключевые слова: weakness shared, velocity, continental-shelf wave, vector, hand, density, basic, region, dynamic, turbulent mixing, ocean, potential vorticity, tellus, shear, vice versa, atmos sci, rudimentary model, amplitude, fact, element, approximation, force potential, explicitly recognizes, geostrophic, dimensional unit, baroclinic, dz, problem, kelvin waves, force, rate, mode, independent, reynolds stress, single valued, upper, vortex-tube stretching, yield, surface, limit, charney, dt, spectral broadening, phys oceanog, kelvins theorem, interior, rossby waves, synoptic patch, dz dx, sl vp, wave, dr, coriolis force, viscous force, nondimensional unit, motion, coriolis acceleration, solid-body rotation, pi po, note, structure, oceanic synoptic-scale, field, zc, ey, thermal convection, general, ekman number, reynolds number, linear, rossby, ekman spiral, horizontal, written, unit normal, theory, oceanic counterpart, solution, large, relative-vorticity gradient, wave number, wind, instability, implies, absolute-vorticity tube, wave activity, dz dy, pedlosky, ci, frictional retardation, kx, short-wave cutoff, mass, vorticity, disturbance, zccj, relative, positive, planetary-vorticity gradient, turbulent stress, stress, dt dx, dx, press, vanish, -term, atmos scl, ps sz, iv-layer model, potential, psf, satisfy, dy dx, fourier transform, rm jm, dy, constant, energy, sin, relation, change, phase, term, dtdz, resonant interactions, wave train, homogeneous models, result, stokess theorem, stratified, equation, ha, non-linear model, flow, dy dz, dt dz, direction, function, vertical, atmos, fluid, physically meaningful, dimensionless unit, pressure, latitude, atmosphere, chain rule, layer, dk dl, kx ly, scale, chapter, dp, dimensional, centrifugal force, oo, inviscid, flux, selected bibliography, dx dy, number, friction, relative acceleration, variable, hydrostatic approximations, frequency, neutral wave, zonal, meteor, order, point, western, w z, dt dt, x y, u v, boundary, sci, increase, oceanic, model, case, small, dy dy, form, uc, quasigeostrophic, wn zn, dx dt, balance, topographic waves, determined, time, rossby wave, radiating wave, centripetal acceleration, plane, nonzonai flows, presence, critical layers, buoyancy force, jo jo, condition, gradient, vanishes, -oo, circulation, gulf stream, current