Mountain Weather and Climate

Research into mountain weather and climate has gained momentum over the 15 years that have elapsed since the publication of the second edition. Studies of the meteorology and climatology of mountains regions of Central Asia and South America, in particular, have provided material for new sections in Chapter 5, with shorter sections on the equatorial mountains of East Africa and the Southern Alps of New Zealand. The high ice plateaus of Greenland and Antarctica are also included. There has also been more attention paid to changes in mountain environments, as part of the widening concern over global warming and through the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its second (1995), third (2001), and fourth (2007) assessment reports. Accordingly, the scope of the material in Chapter 7 has expanded. Research in mountain meteorology has benefited from projects such as the Mesoscale Alpine Program (MAP) and other more local individual endeavors in different parts of the world. Improvements in instrumentation, data recording and transmitting, and new satellite, airborne and ground-based remote sensing, are all changing the ways in which data can be collected. Data analysis, combined with higher resolution numerical modeling, is also becoming increasingly common.

The basic structure of the book remains unchanged, and apart from updating throughout, and corrections where appropriate, most of the original text has been retained. I believe firmly in recognizing important early contributions to the subject, as well as the latest advances. Some recent references incorporated in the bibliographies are not discussed in the text.