Planetary Atmospheres as Non-Equilibrium Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
2012-02-27 v2 Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Fluid Dynamics
Abstract
Planetary atmospheres, and models of them, are discussed from the viewpoint of condensed matter physics. Atmospheres are a form of condensed matter, and many interesting phenomena of condensed matter systems are realized by them. The essential physics of the general circulation is illustrated with idealized 2-layer and 1-layer models of the atmosphere. Equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics are used to directly ascertain the statistics of these models.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1107.5289,
title = {Planetary Atmospheres as Non-Equilibrium Condensed Matter},
author = {J. B. Marston},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1107.5289},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
23 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Annual Reviews of Condensed Matter Physics (2012). Rhines scale (Eq. 25) corrected, one reference moved, and updates to other citations