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Distributed for American Meteorological Society

The Weather, Illustrated

Graphics from The AMS Weather Book

North America has some of the most varied and dynamic weather on the planet. Every year, the Gulf Coast is battered by hurricanes, the Great Plains are ravaged by tornados, the Midwest is pummeled by blizzards, and the temperature in the Southwest reaches a sweltering 120 degrees. Extreme weather can be a matter of life and death, but even when it is pleasant—72 degrees and sunny—weather is still central to the lives of all Americans. Yet few of us really understand the science behind weather.
This DVD companion to The AMS Weather Book—the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to our weather and our atmosphere—provides over one hundred graphic illustrations in full color and exceptional detail that serve to illuminate and explain the full host of atmospheric phenomena, from the Northern Lights and lake effect snow to the jet stream and ocean currents. All of the concepts illustrated on this DVD relate to people’s every day lives and can be used in the classroom to complement the book, or as educational tools in their own right.

1 compact disc | © 2012

Earth Sciences: Meteorology


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Reviews

“A treasure trove full of . . . clear, crisp graphics.”

Robert Henson, author of Weather on the Air and The Rough Guide to Climate Change

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction
    A gallery of clouds
    How the atmosphere bends light
    How water drops make rainbows
    Ice crystals create halos
    Ice crystals create sun pillars
    Satellites give the big picture
    Why the sky is blue and sunrise and sunset are red
Chapter 2: Earth’s Energy
    Electromagnetic waves
    Earth’s energy budget
    How heat travels
    Longer days, less heat
    Earth’s moving continents
    Night and day on an equinox
    Night and day on the summer solstice
    Night and day on the winter solstice
    Space Weather
    The Arctic Ocean halocline
    How Earth’s tilt causes the seasons
Chapter 3: Wind and Currents
    Fierce winds rip apart houses
    How a mercury barometer works
    How Earth’s surface affects winds
    How wind shear causes turbulence
    A one, two, three of jet streams
    Gabled roof and hip roof
    The Coriolis force
    Waves
    What makes the wind blow
    Wind around high pressure
    Wind around low pressure
    Wind between high and low pressure
Chapter 4: Water
    A California barrier jet
    A water molecule
    A watery world
    An ice crystal
    As water cools
    How clouds create rain and snow
    How evaporation saturates air
    Water’s phase changes
    Stable air
    Unstable air
    Why rising air cools
Chapter 5: Global Patterns
    A conveyor belt storm model
    A teacher at sea
    Atmospheric rivers and floods
    Formation of polar air masses
    Global atmospheric and ocean circulation
    La Niña and El Niño
    Middle latitude storms
    Oceanic heat transport
    Oscillations and the weather
    Semipermanent pressure areas
    Some typical extratropical storm tracks
    Storm energy
    Europe’s warm winters
    Waves in upper-atmospheric winds
Chapter 6: Earth Observers
    A gallery of research airplanes
    Automated weather observations
    Doppler weather radar
    Greenland
    Measurements of cloud cover
    Measuring the oceans’ depths
    Passive microwave energy
    Polarized weather radar
    Satellite observations
    Tracking weather in Antarctica
    West Antarctic Ice Sheet camp
Chapter 7: Weather Forecasting
    Aircraft icing
    Blizzard of 1888 snowfall
    Eclipse forecast for 2017
    Forecast maps
    Looking far ahead
    Plenty of warning
    Spaghetti plots
    Storm warning flags
    Tar-Pamlico river basin
    Weather forecasts from start to finish
Chapter 8: Thunderstorms and Tornadoes
    Hailstorms
    Lightning detection
    Lightning
    Multicell cluster thunderstorms
    Safe rooms
    Supercells and tornadoes
    The lifecycle of thunderstorms
    Tornado ingredients
    Tornadoes and overpasses
    Wet and dry microbursts
Chapter 9: Mesoscale Weather
    Atmospheric gravity waves
    Bow echoes
    Lake-effect snow
    Mesoscale convective complex
    The Independence Day derecho of 1977
    The thermal belt and wildfire
    Towering clouds and quirky winds
    Winds with names
    Winter warm front weather
Chapter 10: Tropical Cyclones
    Hurricane eyewall replacement
    Hurricane forecast maps
    Hurricanes high and low
    Ingredients needed for a hurricane
    Inside a hurricane
    Measuring hurricane winds
    Steering hurricanes
    Storm surge
    Storms are giant whirlwinds
    Tropical cyclone basins
Chapter 11: Under the Radar
    Air measurements from above and below
    Air pollution
    Clear above, murky below
    Dangerous tiny particles
    The Air Quality Index
    The heat index
    The UV index and sunburn danger
    Wind chill chart
Chapter 12: Weather and Climate Threats
    Antarctic sea ice
    Arctic Ocean sea ice losses
    Inside ice sheets
    Natural and human drivers of Earth’s climate
    Ozone and the stratosphere
    Productive polar oceans
    The carbon cycle
    Tundra’s active layer
    Warming and ice sheets

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