Atmospheric circulation dynamics and general circulation models (Q380836)

The present book describes the fundamentals of atmospheric dynamics, the theories behind atmospheric circulation structures, and the modeling of atmospheric general circulations. Since the first edition of the book, the author became involved in a new modeling project toward an efficient use of the Japanese ``Earth Simulator'', that means a parallel vector supercomputer. Instead of the hydrostatic spectral general circulation models used up to this point, a non-hydrostatic icosahedral-grid general circulation model NICAM was developed allowing for a horizontal mesh spacing of about 3.5 km at the highest. The work consists of three parts: Part I summarizes the principle ideas of atmospheric dynamics, Part II describes the theories of atmospheric structures from various perspectives, and Part III introduces basic concepts to develop a general circulation model of the atmosphere and to apply it to the study of atmospheric structures. Part I deals with the physical and mathematical fundamentals of atmospheric dynamics, such as sets of governing thermodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic equations, basic balances of the atmosphere like the hydrostatic and the geostrophic as well as the thermal-wind ones, and waves and instabiities as perturbations of balanced atmospheric states. Based on the balances of the atmosphere, suitable and often used approximations of the governing equations are derived. All these topics are, of course, also fully discussed in various standard textbooks on meteorology. Here, summaries of these important topics are given, including the necessary basic physical principles and the general approaches applied. Starting Part I with the thermodynamic properties and the fundamentals of the dry air, also elemental meteorological problems are described, such as moisture, radiation, and eddy transport as well as turbulent processes that are required to understand atmospheric structures. The main part of the work is Part II which describes the basic mechanisms maintaining atmospheric structures from various perspectives. Besides, it is discussed how the atmospheric circulation depends on external parameters. Atmospheric structures are examined by means of global-averaged properties, horizontal one-dimensional structures, vertical one-dimensional structures, meridional two-dimensional structures, and horizontal two-dimensional or spherical structures. In Part II, the energy balance of the entire Earth is considered. On the basis of this analysis, then the energy budget in the latitudinal direction and the vertical structure of the atmosphere are described. Moist convection and its importance for the formation of the vertical structure of the atmosphere are explained. As the large-scale circulation in the tropical atmosphere can be considered as moist convective motion, the Walker and the Hadley circulations at low latitudes are analysed. Spherical motions on the Earth are discussed based on the concepts of wave propagation and the angular momentum budget. Midlatitude circulations are considered in terms of meridional circulations. Finally, global-scale mixing motions are reviewed, which are characterized by thermally driven meridional circulations and isentropic flows. In Part III, the fundamental numerical techniques needed to construct an atmospheric general circulation model are described. In doing so, the author concentrates on the dynamical cores of the models - physical processes were already described in Part I. Part III considers two types of general circulation models, hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic ones. The description of the hydrostatic models is restricted to spectral models, in which all variables are expanded using spherical harmonics. Such models are widely used and have a clear model structure. Equation sets of the models, numerical discretization in the spherical domain and in the vertical direction, and time integration schemes are described. Concerning the global non-hydrostatic atmospheric models, the author concentrates on the icosahedral division grid. Having considered non-hydrostatic models in Cartesian coordinates, he deals with icosahedral grids as one type of a spherical grid system. As application a shallow-water model is constructed. Then the construction of global models is discussed focusing on the NICAM model. Some standard experiments are listed, which can help to validate newly constructed atmospheric general circulation models. (The review is written based on summaries given by the author in the prefaces and on the pages 3, 325 and 518 of the book)