Through the experience of the author and his interaction with others that teach cloud and precipitation physics at the University of Oklahoma over the course of at least the past 17 years, it became apparent that there were no current reference books or textbooks on the specific topic of the principles of parameterization of cloud and precipitation microphysical processes. This is despite the knowledge that the research community in numerical simulation models of clouds regularly uses microphysical parameterizations. Moreover, the operational community would find that numerical weather prediction models are not possible without microphysical parameterizations. Therefore, it is hoped that this book will be one that begins to fill this niche and provides a reference for the research and operational communities, as well as a textbook for upper-level graduate students.

Researchers and students should have a prerequisite of a basic graduate-level course in cloud and precipitation physics before using this book, though every effort has been made to make the book as self-contained as possible. The book provides a single source for a combination of the principles and parameterizations, where possible, of cloud and precipitation microphysics. It is not intended to be a comprehensive text on microphysical principles in the spirit of Pruppacher and Klett's book Microphysics of Clouds and Precipitation. Not every existing parameterization available is included in the book, as this would be an overwhelmingly daunting task, though every effort has been made to include the more common and modern parameterizations.