Last Updated:
February 28, 2007

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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

RECENT BOOKS AND PROCEEDINGS (JUNE 1999)

Item #d99jun20

Reactive Hydrocarbons in the Atmosphere, C. N. Hewitt (Ed.), 319 pp., 1999, $75/hbk (Academic).

Biogenic and anthropogenic organics play an important role in the atmospheric chemistry of the troposphere and form secondary organic aerosols and atmospheric acids, produce global warming, and (when containing chlorine or bromine) contribute to stratospheric ozone depletion. All the chapters are written by experts and broadly cover the role of these compounds in the photochemistry occurring in the atmosphere. Topics include emissions from anthropogenic and biogenic sources; the modeling of fluxes; sampling and analysis; urban, regional, and global distributions and effects; smog formation; and global atmospheric chemistry. Reviewing the book in Eos 80 (15), 176 (Apr. 13, 1999), Roger Atkinson noted that chapters vary significantly in the level of detail, that “the book is produced with few errors,” and that each chapter has a useful set of references. With few exceptions, the logic flows smoothly from chapter to chapter.

Item #d99jun21

Global Energy and Water Cycles, K. A. Browning and R. J. Gurney (Eds.), 292 pp., 1999, $95/hbk (Cambridge University Press).

This book assesses the current understanding of the interactions between energy and water cycles that are basic to weather forecasting and climate-change prediction. It is organized according to the processes involved and includes discussions of water-vapor advection, cloud physics, groundwater movement, and freshwater intrusions into the ocean. It focuses on the functioning and modeling of each process and develops the narrative according to three themes: the ability to simulate these processes accurately, the level of detail needed, and the consistent treatment of these disparate processes in models. Reviewing the book in Nature 398, 480 (1999), David Rind says that it is “most appropriate for researchers and advanced graduate students,” although he laments that it is likely to have “a relatively short shelf-life” because of the rapid advance of the discipline.