John P. Boyd Bücher

Exploring the phenomenon of nonlocal solitary waves, the book delves into the mysterious origins of the "Morning Glory," a breathtaking cloud formation observed in northern Australia. These massive cylinders of cloud, rolling from the ocean inland, evoke a sense of wonder that has likely existed since ancient times. The text highlights the awe experienced by its early discoverer, who lived millennia before recorded history, and connects this natural spectacle to modern scientific understanding. The narrative intertwines history, science, and the beauty of nature.

This book is the first comprehensive introduction to the theory of equatorially-confined waves and currents in the ocean. Among the topics treated are inertial and shear instabilities, wave generation by coastal reflection, semiannual and annual cycles in the tropic sea, transient equatorial waves, vertically-propagating beams, equatorial Ekman layers, the Yoshida jet model, generation of coastal Kelvin waves from equatorial waves by reflection, Rossby solitary waves, and Kelvin frontogenesis. A series of appendices on midlatitude theories for waves, jets and wave reflections add further material to assist the reader in understanding the differences between the same phenomenon in the equatorial zone versus higher latitudes.