The topic of predictability in weather and climate has advanced significantly in recent years, both in understanding the phenomena that affect weather and climate and in techniques used to model and forecast them. This book, first published in 2006, brings together some of the world's leading experts on predicting weather and climate. It addresses predictability from the theoretical to the practical, on timescales from days to decades. Topics such as the predictability of weather phenomena, coupled ocean-atmosphere systems and anthropogenic climate change are among those included. Ensemble systems for forecasting predictability are discussed extensively. Ed Lorenz, father of chaos theory, makes a contribution to theoretical analysis with a previously unpublished paper. This well-balanced volume will be a valuable resource for many years. High-calibre chapter authors and extensive subject coverage make it valuable to people with an interest in weather and climate forecasting and environmental science, from graduate students to researchers.
Timothy Noel Palmer, FRS, CBE, is a Royal Society Research Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford who pioneered the development of operational ensemble weather and climate forecasting. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a recipient of the Institute of Physics Dirac Gold Medal and a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. His PhD was in general relativity theory.