General Basics

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides the basics for this book, and terms such as micrometeorology, atmospheric boundary layer, and meteorological scales are defined and presented in relation to the subject matter of this book. Besides an historical outline, the energy and water balance equations at the Earth's surface and the transport processes are discussed. The first chapter of the book focus on the micrometeorological basics, which are then expanded in the following theoretical and experimental chapters. 1.1 Micrometeorology Meteorology is one of the oldest sciences in the world. It can be traced back to Aristotle (384-322 BCE), who wrote the four volumes of the book Meteorology. In ancient times, appearances in the air were called meteors. In the first half of the 20th century, the upper soil layers were considered part of meteorology (Hann and Süring 1939). Today meteorology is understood in a very general sense to be the science of the atmosphere (Glickman 2000; Dutton 2002; Kraus 2004), and includes also the mean states (climatology). Sometimes the definition of meteorology is very narrow, and only related to the physics of the atmosphere or weather prediction. To understand atmospheric processes, many other sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology and all geosciences are necessary, and it is not easy to find the boundaries of these disciplines. In a pragmatic way, meteorology is related only to processes that take place in situ in the atmosphere, while other sciences can investigate processes and reactions in the laboratory. This underlines the specific character of meteorology , i.e., a science that investigates an open system with a great number of atmospheric influences operating at all times but with changing intensity. Meteorology is subdivided into branches (Houghton 1985; Glickman 2000; Kraus 2004; Hupfer and Kuttler 2005). The main branches are theoretical meteorology,