Weather Cycles
Weather Cycles
This completely updated new edition of Weather Cycles: Real or Imaginary? explores in detail the unresolved debate on the existence of weather cycles. The book examines the competing arguments for observed effects being due to natural variability, solar activity and the Earth's orbital parameters. It provides a different perspective on one of the most difficult questions in the current global warming debate: namely, just how much of the recent temperature rise can be attributed to natural causes? Only by understanding how the climate can change of its own accord, and whether observed shifts are part of a set of predictable patterns, will it be possible to reach a reliable judgement on how much impact human activities are having. This book examines the complex analysis required to assess the evidence for cycles with a minimum of mathematics. This comprehensive and balanced account will appeal to the student and expert alike.
- New and completed updated edition of a successful book: see the many very positive reviews
- A comprehensive and balanced account of the evidence of how the climate can exhibit periodic fluctuations and why these matter, presented with only the essential mathematics
- A simple analysis of how that climate hovers between order and disorder and what this means for modern society
Reviews & endorsements
"It provides a different perspective on one of the most difficult questions in the current global warming debate: how much of the recent temperature rise can be attributed to natural causes?" Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
"...neatly written and excellently presented." Times Higher Education Supplement
"...a book whose clarity and breadth of vision set it apart." Scientific American
"he has produced a well-written, clearly illustrated review, which makes an important point." Oceanography, Michael N. Evans, Assistant Professor, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, The University of Arizona, Tuscon, USA
"...after reading the book, I was left with a better appreciation of the complexity of climate and the possible roles of subtle climatic influences. The book is useful because it has a broader scope and is more digestible than the journal articles that are usually the scienctist's bread and butter." - Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Steve Mauget
Product details
January 2004Paperback
9780521528221
330 pages
247 × 175 × 21 mm
0.663kg
86 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1. The search for cycles
- 2. Statistical background
- 3. Instrumental records
- 4. Proxy data
- 5. The global climate
- 6. Extraterrestrial influences
- 7. Autovariance and other explanations
- 8. Nothing more than chaos?
- Appendix A.1. Measures of variability
- A.2. Sherman's statistic
- A.3. Fourier series and Fourier analysis
- A.4. Calculations of the coefficients of harmonic analysis
- A.5. Maximum entropy spectral analysis (MESA)
- A.6. Smoothing and filtering
- A.7. Wavelet analysis
- A.8. Singular spectrum analysis
- A.9. Noise
- A.10. Detrending of prewhitening
- Annotated bibliography
- References
- Glossary
- Index.
