Plate 1  Satellite image showing cloud patterns in the ITCZ.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Plate 2  A sequence of satellite images, six hours apart, showing the rapid development
of a deep depression from an initial cloud band associated with the jet stream,
through the initial stages of wave development, the appearance of an emerging
cloud head and finally reaching maturity.

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 Plate 3 Satellite image of a polar low near the coast of northern Norway.

Plate 4 Satellite image of central and southern Africa at 12 UTC, showing convective
systems on a wide range of scales from individual thunderstorms to larger areas of
organized convection.

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 Plate 5 Satellite image of Hurricane Dean approaching Mexico on 20th August 2007.

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 Plate 6 T
 wo satellite images of the Indian Ocean, one week apart, during May 2002. In the
first image the cloudiness associated with the active phase of the MJO is centred
over the Indian Ocean. In the second image this cloud has moved eastwards over
Indonesia, leaving the Indian Ocean largely clear, apart from a pair of tropical
storms in the west of the basin.

Plate 7 Wave clouds forming over the Alps.

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 Plate 8 Aerial photograph looking along the rabbit-proof fence in western Australia.
Shallow cumulus clouds are confined to the uncultivated side of the fence.

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 (a)

Plate 9 ( a) Infrared and

(b) visible satellite
images of convective
clouds over the UK
during late spring,
when the land is
warmer than the
ocean. A line of deep
cloud, associated
with heavy showers,
can be seen down
the western side of
the country.

(b)

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 Plate 10 Satellite image of
convection over
the ocean around
the UK during the
winter when the land
surface is colder than
the ocean.

Plate 11 S atellite image showing extensive sea fog in the North Sea,
running onto the east coast of the UK.

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 Plate 12 Satellite image for 0754 UTC on the 26 December 1999, showing the ‘Lothar’
storm that brought widespread damage to parts of Europe.

Plate 13 Satellite image of a dust-plume from West Africa crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
The dust shows up as a dirty brown colour over the dark ocean surface.

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 Plate 14 A single-cell cumulonimbus cloud.

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 Plate 15 A multi-cell thunderstorm, clearly showing a tilt with height. New convective
clouds are developing on the side nearest the camera.

Plate 16 Altocumulus cloud associated with an approaching warm front. At this stage
the Sun can still be seen through the cloud, but 30 minutes later the cloud had
thickened and steady rain was falling.

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 Plate 17 High, thin altocumulus cloud not associated with any frontal feature.

Plate 18 Tufts of high cirrus clouds. The lower grey clouds have been formed by cumulus
clouds flattening out in the evening as the Earth’s surface starts to cool.

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 Plate 19 Rainfall radar image
of the UK at 2100
UTC on 19 June 2007.
The bright colours
indicate very heavy
rain, and parts of
north-east England
were experiencing
flash flooding at this
time.

Plate 20 Visible satellite image from a geostationary satellite.

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 Plate 21 Infrared image from a geostationary satellite, for the same time as the visible
image in Plate 20.

Plate 22 Water vapour satellite image from a geostationary satellite for the same time as
the images in Plates 20 and 21.

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 Plate 23 A developing cumulus cloud. At this stage there is no ice apparent in the top of
the cloud and no rain is falling at the base, but a shower isn’t far off.

Plate 24 Cumulus cloud showing some flattening, which could be due to building high
pressure or an approaching front.

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 Plate 25 The same cumulus cloud 15 minutes later, showing a thin layer of milky white
cirrostratus above the cumulus. A warm front is on its way.

Plate 26 Multi-model mean of annual mean surface warming (surface air temperature
change in ºC) for the scenarios B1 (top) A1B (middle) and A2 (bottom), and three
different time periods, 2011–30 (left), 2046–62 (middle) and 2080–99 (right).
Anomalies are relative to the average of the period 1980 to 1999.

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 Plate 27 ‘Red sky at night…’ In this case the red sky was probably due to increased levels
of atmospheric pollution.

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 Acknowledgements
First of all, thanks to Ross Reynolds for encouraging me to
try writing a book in the first place. Thank you also to all my
colleagues at Reading for providing an atmosphere in which
to work where there is such a wide diversity of meteorological
knowledge, making it easy to find out things I didn’t know.
The same goes for former colleagues at the Met Office College
and the Hadley Centre. Most of all thanks to my wife for all the
support over the months of writing in the evenings. Finally thanks
to my son Tom for lending me his drawing stuff.

The author and publisher would like to thank the following for
permission to use their photographs and data:

Colour plates

© M. Ambaum, Plate 14
© Alec Bennett, Plates 15 and 23
© Neil Blanchonnet, Plate 7
© Laura Wilcox, Plate 27
© Peter Inness, Plates 16, 17, 24, 25
© Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 report,
‘Climate Change: The Physical Basis’, Plate 26
© Tom Lyons, Murdoch University, Australia, Plate 8
© Met Office, Plate 19
©NASA Earth Observatory (earthobservatory.nasa.gov), Plates 5
and 13
© NERC Satellite Receiving Station, University of Dundee, Plates
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22
© I. Ptashnik, Plate 18

Black and white figures

Figures 3.8, 3.9a, 3.9b, 3.10a, 3.10b, 3.11a, 3.11b, 10.1, based
on data from NOAA Earth Systems Research Laboratory
(www.cdc.noaa.gov).

Acknowledgements iii

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