We spend a great deal of time living under the cover of clouds, but rarely do we look up and pay attention to them, and most of us know very little about what clouds are and the vital role they play in the Earth's climate and ecosystem. This is not true of Vincenzo Levizzani. As one of the world's leading experts on the physics of clouds. He has devoted his life to studying clouds, analysing their characteristics and passing this knowledge on to others.
In The Book of Clouds, Levizzani provides a marvellous introduction to the history and science of clouds - from the many ways that clouds have influenced art and culture to the way that they have been studied, classified and understood, from understanding how clouds form an distribute precipitation to understanding how they are affected by climate change. The result is a book that provides readers with everything they need to know to recognise different clouds, interpret their behaviour and understand what is likely to happen if we are foolish enough to disrupt the delicate balance between Earth and the skies that have blessed us with a habitable climate for millennia.
Exquisitely illustrated, The Book of Clouds offers a deep dive into clouds, droplets, crystals, graupels and hailstones among other things. It will be the indispensible book for anyone who has gazed upwards and wondered what to make of the different clouds and cloud formations that fill our skies.
Arvustused
"In this theoretical and practical guide for reading the sky, Vincenzo Levizzani summarizes in a text dense with information but easy to read all the notions that are useful for observing the sky with a scientific eye, without forgetting, however, the poetic charm that the sky has exerted on humankind since the dawn of history." Oggi Scienza
"Technically rigorous and enjoyable to read, The Book of Clouds suggests a novel task for the holidays: look up from your smartphone and gaze at the sky!" Il Fatto Quotidiano
Introduction: People and clouds
1. Clouds
2. No cloud is like any other
3. How a cloud forms
Clouds and weather fronts
Clouds, lakes, seas, and mountains
Amarcord and fond memories of fog
The majestic thunderstorm
Large and very large thunderstorms
Have you ever been inside a tropical cyclone?
'Hurricanes' in the Mediterranean
Some more 'ordinary' cyclones
Clouds almost nobody has ever heard of
4. Journey among the hydrometeors
Hydrometeors
Aerosols and condensation
Droplets
The temperature falls, but by how much?
Ice crystals, nature's masterpiece
The many faces of atmospheric ice
Hail, at last!
5. When it's raining, let it rain
Warm clouds: has someone left the heater on?
Cold clouds, brrr!
There isn't just rain up there
Ice, treacherous ice, fraught with danger
How hailstones grow
One cloud rains, the other doesn't
Lightning
There's something strange up there
6. Inside the clouds
7. Meteorology and clouds
8. Changing climate, changing clouds?
Epilogue: Measuring the sky
Acknowledgements
A Cloudspotter's Glossary
Acronyms
List of Illustrations
Vincenzo Levizzani is Professor of Cloud Physics at the University of Bologna.
