Air and Water

Air and water are so familiar that we all think we know them. Yet how difficultit remains to predict their behavior, with so many questions butting againstthe limits of our knowledge. How are cyclones, tornadoes, thunderstorms,tsunamis or floods generated - sometimes causing devastation and death?What will the weather be tomorrow, next week, next summer? This bookbrings some answers to these questions with a strategy of describing beforeexplaining. Starting by considering air and water inequilibrium(i.e., at rest),it progresses to discuss dynamic phenomena first focusing on large scalestructures, such asEl Niñoor trade winds, then on ever smaller structures,such as low-pressure zones in the atmosphere, clouds, rain, as well as tides and waves. It finishes by describing man-made constructions (dams, ports,power plants, etc.) that serve to domesticate our water resources and putthem to work for us. Including over one hundred illustrations and very few equations, most of thetext is accessible to readers with no more than high-school science and whoare at ease with quantities such as the temperature of a fluid or the pressurewithin such a medium. Beyond the primary audience of engineers, teachers,and students, the book is thus also addressed to walkers, hikers, navigators,and all nature lovers.