The following notes have been the basis for an introductory course in atmospheric dynamics which has been taught at Harvard and M.I.T. for the past seven years. The individual chapters were initially intended to correspond to ninety-minute lectures, but, as a result of innumerable changes based on practical demands, the author's predilections, and so forth, this is no longer the case. Some chapters have been reduced while others have been greatly expanded.

Many of the topics covered in these notes may seem somewhat advanced for an introductory course. There are several reasons why they have been included (and why other more traditional topics have been neglected). First, I feel that many topics are considered ‘advanced’ or ‘elementary’ for historical reasons and not because they are particularly difficult or easy. The topics I have included do not call on especially advanced mathematical skills; they are, moreover, topics which I believe to be basic to the contemporary study of atmospheric dynamics (wave-mean flow interaction, for example). Second, the students who have taken this course at Harvard and M.I.T. have usually had good backgrounds in undergraduate physics and applied mathematics. In many cases, moreover, the students have had some earlier introduction to fluid mechanics. That said, the material in these notes is in many instances conceptually demanding, and students should not feel discouraged if they have difficulty following it. Some topics may require considerable effort.

Because of the background of most of the students, and, in particular, because most of the students have already been introduced to the equations of motion, I have adopted a somewhat unusual approach to the derivation of the equations in Chapter 6.