This textbook on rotating fluid dynamics combines a pedagogical development of theoretical ideas with a description and analysis of many of the fascinating examples of rotating flows found in nature.

Professor Peter Davidson is a Professor of Fluid Mechanics at the University of Cambridge. He has worked as a research engineer in industry in both the UK and USA, and has authored over 100 publications in the fields of magnetohydrodynamics and turbulence.

• PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO FLUID DYNAMICS AND WAVES


• 1: A Qualitative Introduction to Rotating Fluids


• 2: A Crash Course on Incompressible Fluid Dynamics


• 3: Waves and Waves in Fluids


• PART II THE THEORY OF ROTATING FLUIDS


• 4: Moving into a Rotating Frame of Reference, the Taylor-Proudman Theorem, and the Formation of Taylor Columns


• 5: Ekman Boundary Layers


• 6: Inertial Waves I


• 7: Inertial Waves II


• 8: Rossby Waves


• 9: Rotating, Shallow-Water Flow


• 10: Precession


• 11: Instability I


• 12: Instability II


• 13: Vortex Breakdown


• 14: A Glimpse at Rapidly Rotating Turbulence


• PART III ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES OF ROTATING FLOWS IN NATURE


• 15: Tornadoes, Dust Devils, and Tidal Vortices


• 16: Tropical Cyclones


• 17: Convective Motion in the Earth's Core and the Geodynamo


• 18: Zonal (East-West) Winds and Rossby-Wave Turbulence


• 19: Accretion Discs in Astrophysics


• Vector Identities and Theorems


• Navier-Stokes Equation in Cylindrical Polar Coordinates


• Geophysical Data


• The Physical Properties of Common Fluids


• Index