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Fundamentals of Numerical Weather Prediction, by Jean Coiffier

Article  in  Contemporary Physics · November 2012

DOI: 10.1080/00107514.2012.745614

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 Fundamentals of Numerical Weather Prediction
J. Coiffier
Cambridge University Press
2011
340 pages, hardback
ISBN 9781107001039
monograph
advanced undergraduate students
Dr. Manuel Vogel, TU Darmstadt and GSI Darmstadt, m.vogel@gsi.de

Numerical weather prediction has its roots in the rise of modern computing in the 1950ies and is
hence a fairly young discipline within meteorology. The obvious reason for this is the required
computational power with weather prediction computers typically being amongst the most powerful
of their time. The concept of numerical weather prediction is the use of equations which describe the
behaviour of the atmosphere and to numerically compute future values of relevant atmospheric
parameters from initial values which are obtained from meteorological observation. The equations in
use are basically adapted from fluid mechanics with certain simplifications and discretizations which
make the problem computable. Discretization is achieved by solving the set of equations on grids
with specific properties and use of the finite difference method. The outcome of such a prediction is
sensitive to the initial values but also to the discretization process itself. Moreover, all of these have
to be adapted to the available computational power. The book hence begins the half century long
history of numerical weather prediction with the developments in computing, from the kilo-flop
(floating point operations per second) regime of the 1950ies to the tera-flop regime of today. The
chapters follow the logic of what is required for a numerical weather forecast; they describe the set
of equations which fundamentally characterize the atmosphere and how they are formulated in the
various coordinate systems, they explain the principle techniques for a representation of those
equations, the finite differences method and the spectral method, they show the details of how the
equations can be discretized to make them computable and how an operational weather prediction
is derived from the computational results. The individual chapters are: Half a Century of Numerical
Weather Prediction, Weather Prediction Equations, Finite Differences, Spectral Methods, The Effects
of Discretization, Barotropic Models, Baroclinic Model Equations, Some Baroclinic Models, Physical
Parametrizations, Operational Forecasting.
The author, Jean Coiffier, has worked in a leading position at the French national weather forecast
agency, Météo-France. He has taught numerical weather prediction at the École Nationale de la
Météorologie, and the present book is derived from these courses. It is intended as an introduction
to current techniques for the development and use of numerical weather prediction models. It does
not assume knowledge of the fundamentals of dynamic meteorology as it regards the set of
atmospheric equations as given. The focus is on the very methods required to make those equations
computable and how a working weather forecast is derived.
This book is not a classical textbook as it does not give problems. The topic is treated in full
mathematical detail on the advanced undergraduate level and above. It is well-referenced and
suggests further reading. The appendix treats examples of non-hydrostatic models. While the original
text is written in French, the present edition has been carefully translated into English by Christopher
Sutcliffe. The text is clearly written and the line of thought is easy to follow. The quality of the paper
and the print are excellent. This book deserves a recommendation both for advanced students of
meteorology and as a reference for experts in the field.

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