Publisher's Synopsis
Based on lecture notes for a successful course in environmental physics, this textbook offers an overview of the field, and gives students an introduction to the approach and methods of environmental physicists. Furthermore, it introduces many aspects of the system earth and shows examples of their investigation, allowing students to thoroughly understand how the environment works. The special combination of the topics and methods covered provides a comprehensively and scientifically well-founded view of the physical functioning of the earth system. The text covers many of the physical basics needed to understand current climate and environmental science. Various environmental systems are compared in order to elucidate both fundamental similarities and differences in their forcing and behavior. It also forms a solid foundation to better understand the reports of the working group I of the IPCC. Readers interested in the current debate about anthropogenic climate change will find many answers to fundamental questions, while students of environmental physics, as well as those of earth and environmental sciences, will appreciate this useful reference that integrates knowledge otherwise spread among various sources. With its worked-out problems and solutions, this is an essential textbook for climate and environmental physics courses, and a much-needed source of teaching material for scientists working in the field of physical environmental science.
