(Organization as given in EOS guidelines for authors of book reviews) 1) An Introduction to Atmospheric Physics 2) David G. Andrews 3) Cambridge University Press 4) New York, NY 5) 229 pp. 6) ISBN 0 521 62958 6 7) 2000 8) $28.95 9) Review: Increasing awareness of the changing global environment stimulates increasing interest in understanding the physical processes that govern these changes. Students with a background in physics will be well served in pursuing the atmospheric aspect of these issues by studying David G. Andrews book _An Introduction to Atmospheric Physics_. The text is geared toward advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students with a working knowledge of basic physics, calculus, and differential equations. This book provides these students with a taste of how physics is applied to the atmospheric sciences, and supplies a solid background for additional study. Overall, the book is well written and clearly organized in covering a broad survey of topics for an introductory atmospheric text: thermodynamics, dynamics, radiation, and chemistry. The author's interest in the middle atmosphere (stratosphere and mesosphere) is reflected in the treatment of these topics. In fact, material that is mainly relevant to weather in the troposphere, such as cloud droplet growth, seems out of place. The presentation is compact, with basic results briefly derived or simply stated with appropriate references. Ample questions are given at the end of each chapter, with answers in an appendix. Each chapter also includes helpful suggestions for further reading. The introduction discusses climatological-mean observational profiles of wind, temperature, and ozone, as well as simple radiative-equilibrium models that are pursued in greater depth in Chapter 3. Elementary atmospheric thermodynamics is covered in Chapter 2, including the ideal-gas law, hydrostatic balance, and the use of thermodynamic diagrams. A notable omission here is the virtual temperature correction to the ideal-gas law, consistent with a middle-atmosphere theme. The latter portion of this chapter is dedicated to cloud formation and droplet growth. Basic atmospheric radiation theory is derived in Chapter 4 and then applied to remote-sensing strategies in Chapter 7. Material in these chapters is thorough and provides a foundation for further study in these areas. The same can be said of the two dynamics chapters (Chapters 4 and 5), which provide a solid core to the text. The basic equations are derived heuristically and then simplified through linearization and reduction to the quasigeostrophic system. After a brief review of Rossby and gravity waves, a brief discussion is given of gravitational, baroclinic, and barotropic instability. Unfortunately, this material lacks sufficient motivation, and little interpretation is given for the main results. A chapter on atmospheric chemistry (Chapter 6) adds to the well roundedness of this book. Although the applications are mainly stratospheric, the introductory material on chemical kinetics is general, and should prove useful. Select aspects of atmospheric modelings are briefly reviewed in Chapter 8. The main points include promoting the usefulness of a hierarchy of models, from simple to complex, and introducing some widely used numerical methods. At times it seems that portions of the text would flow better with more motivational material, which may also relate to the fact that there are very few observations. On the other hand, the addition of such material runs the risk of disturbing the compact, pithy, treatment that physics students should appreciate. 10) Reviewer: Gregory J. Hakim Department of Atmospheric Sciences University of Washington Seattle, Washington