412 BOOK REVIEWS

in flow over and around obstacles such as buildings and topographical features, F. B. Smith and R. M.
Blackhall on the improvement of the practical estimates of plume spread, including more explicit use than
hitherto of the basic external parameters of the atmospheric boundary layer, B. E. Fisher on long-distance
travel of pollutants, with the additional complication of physical removal and chemical transformation.
The fourth and relatively short paper by C. D. Jones in quite different in character, being essentially an
introductory observational study of high-frequency concentration fluctuations close to a continuous source
of negative ions.
The remaining chapters (‘Mixing processes in estuaries and coastal waters’ and ‘Water pollution
modelling and control’) begin with an account by T. J. Smith and K. R. Dyer of solutions of the two-
dimensional form of the hydrodynamical equations, using the gradient-transfer hypothesis with the eddy
diffusivity modelled from the turbulent energy equation. In the second contribution by R. Smith the emphasis
I S on the dominant influence of dispersion in the flow direction as a result of interaction between crossflow
diffusion and shear. The third paper (by P. A. Gurbutt and J. G. Shepherd) gives a brief outline of a model
of long-term mixing of radioactive waste from the sea bed, again relying on the gradient-transfer hypothesis.
In the fourth paper by J. F. Macqueen a fairly extensive review is given of the mathematical treatment of
the mixing of cooling water discharges from power stations at tidal estuary sites, allowing especially for the
buoyancy of the discharge and for the subsequent dominance of the along-flow shear-induced dispersion,
The dominance of the latter mechanism is also stressed in R. E. Lewis’s short article on the problem of
sewage disposal in the sea. Finally, a systematic approach to the modelling of river water quality is presented
by C. J. Harris who, as Editor, also provides a brief synopsis of all the papers in the preface to the volume.
In view of the continuing reliance on the gradient-transfer hypothesis in many practical treatments,
despite the objections on fundamental grounds, it is surprising that these proceedings did not include a more
coordinated appraisal of this approach. It is true that considerable reassurance is provided empirically by
the wind-tunnel studies of plume spread, but only for vertical dispersion from a surjace release in neutral
flow. However, attempts on the theoretical side to avoid the gradient-transfer hypothesis by closure schemes
for the third moments in the fluctuation equations, as advocated enthusiastically in dispersion modelling
in the USA a few years ago, receive no attention here. As regards the other popular approach in the
atmospheric dispersion context, the adaptation of the G. I. Taylor statistical approach, a more extensive
consideration of the Lagrangian time-scale would have veen valuable, especially in possibly helping to
remove some of the confusion that still appears to exist in the experience of crosswind dispersion. On a
more general note the lack of reference to discussion also seems surprising. However, in an overall sense
the volume represents a useful coverage of the present position in a highly specialized research.
F. PASQUILL

At1 introduction to dymmic meteorology. By James R. Holton. Academic Press, Inc. Second edition. 391 pp.
s22.00.
The second edition of Holton’s book is again a thoughtful, thought-provoking text to lay before the
better student of dynamical meteorology, while retaining graded examples essential to the less gifted student.
The first five chapters cover the necessary basic fluid dynamics, expressed in variables measured relative
to a rotating frame, and give proper respect and care to the power of order-of-magnitude calculations.
In a teaching book at this level of postgraduate introduction, some unevenness of treatment is inevitable
and the discerning student will find the treatment of gravitational attraction in the first chapter unsatisfactory
until he realizes the author’s implicit distinction between centre of mass and centre of gravity (it is not true
that gravitational attraction is directed along the line joining the centre of mass of two arbitrarily shaped
bodies). I still believe that it is worth using the Richardson notation to distinguish the substantial derivative
from the ordinary derivative (particularly for the introduction of the difficult concept of substantial variation)
but the modern trend is away from that distinction. A student should be worried by the interpretation of
dC/dr for the circulation of a finite set of parcels when d/dr has been defined as the derivative following
one of them.
Apart from an unwarranted deduction about the nature of the pressure gradient implied by the limiting
value of the gradient wind solution, there is little with which to find fault. Nor should there be, because the
substance is very much classical meteorological dynamics.
After a short but useful chapter describing the structure of baroclinic waves, we have a chapter in
which acoustic, gravity-inertial and Rossby waves are discovered as the solutions to suitably filtered
equations. This I find rather arbitrary because it is a nice exercise to show that both gravity and sound
waves are found in the same set of equations. Indeed, such analysis is carried through qualitatively where
the equations are filtered to give the quasi-geostrophic set.
Discussion of models with a finite number of levels, numerical techniques and the role of the integral
constraints implied by conservation laws is perfectly adequate (von Neumann - unreferenced - is given as
the title of what I know as the CFL condition for computational stability). A useful introduction to
operational models concludes appropriately with Leith’s stimulating analysis of the distinction between
model error and error in initial data.
Baroclinic instability, as the mechanism of cyclogenesis, is treated with the two-level quasi-geostrophic
model and the concept of available potential energy is introduced to describe the nature of the mechanism.
 BOOK REVIEWS 473

There is the odd curious statement like 'that baroclinic waves reduce the meridional temperature gradient',
when the next section goes on to talk about how it is, in fact, intensified in frontal zones. Deficiencies of
the two-level model, though mentioned initially. are not explored in the context of the exact solutions to
stability problems.
The chapter on the general circulation discusses the requirements of a satisfactory model of heat and
momentum transfer, then stops, or rather goes off at a tangent to laboratory simulations. To one accustomed
to seeing the prime. object of dynamical meteorology as the explanation of the general circulation, this is
disconcerting. All the basic development of the theory is done, but left unconnected with this crucial
intellectual problem. Numerical simulation is also treated as a sort of technological end in itself, rather than
as a challenge to understanding.
Stratospheric motion is treated in adequate detail and perspective, as might be expected from a leading
researcher in the field. Tropical motion is treated with proper emphasis on the role of latent heat and larger
scale motion is shown to result from the subsequent organization of the convection. I have a quibble with
the discussion of synoptic scale motion because the author does not finally define which phenomenon is
intended, and the assumption that the appropriate horizontal scale is the same as that for middle latitudes
is arguable. The reader will see that some well-defined tropical motion has a scale of about 1/4 that of
middle latitudes and should be invited to deduce that this too might be quasi-geostrophic.
On the whole this is a simple, no-nonsense text introducing several modern concepts and missing a few
that are worth presenting. The notion of steady, as distinct from stationary, motion with its attendant
exploration of the notion of relative flow, is missing. The fact that the concept of available potential energy
can describe buoyant convection, as well as slantwise convection, surely deserves mention, and it is a pity
that two of the great innovators, Eliassen and Eady, who laid the perceptive foundations for much of the
work, should not be mentioned in the list of references.
J. S . A. GREEN