Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences : An Introduction

Rating:
Summary: Essential for students; valuable for researchers
Review: Need more be said? A comprehensive guide to the most useful statistical methods in the fields of oceanographic, meteorological and climatological research. This is the bible for atmospheric research and a neccessity on every research scientist's bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: The Bible for Atmoshperic Sciences
Review: Need more be said? A comprehensive guide to the most useful statistical methods in the fields of oceanographic, meteorological and climatological research. This is the bible for atmospheric research and a neccessity on every research scientist's bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: Essential for students; valuable for researchers
Review: This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the most commonly used statistical methods in atmospheric research. It is written at a level that is suitable for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students with only a moderate level of mathematical ability, but is suitable also as a basic text book for researchers with moderate experience in statistics. It lacks some depth in some sections, such as in discussions of multivariate methods, but for students the coverage is ideal, and I would strongly recommend the book as a standard text for any course in research methods for atmospheric scientists. Topics covered include empirical distributions and exploratory data analysis, data distributions, hypothesis testing, forecasting and verification methods, time series, and multivariate analyses.

Statistical methods are introduced in the context of their application. The emphasis is on solutions to meteorological problems rather than on the statistical methods per se. Although I see this approach as a major strength of the book, one result is that the book may be of less interest to non-atmospheric scientists. Limitations of the methods are discussed, and the reader is given considerable assistance in interpreting the statistical results of the methods covered. The mathematical back ground is kept at a level that should be digestible by most students. Equations are relatively few, but not lacking, so the mathematically shy should be able to gain a lot from the book. The text is excellently written: very clear and the logical development is very smooth. I think in time this book will prove to appeal to a wide range of atmospheric scientists.

Rating:
Summary: The quintessential text and reference.
Review: Wilks brilliantly covers the fundamentals of statistical methods for atmospheric data with clarity and precision. This book is a classic, and a much-needed successor to the 1958 text by Panofsky and Brier. Moreover, the book's coverage is applicable to other geophysical fields, such as hydrology, which broadens its usefulness for researchers, practitioners, and students.

Rating:
Summary: The quintessential text and reference.
Review: Wilks brilliantly covers the fundamentals of statistical methods for atmospheric data with clarity and precision. This book is a classic, and a much-needed successor to the 1958 text by Panofsky and Brier. Moreover, the book's coverage is applicable to other geophysical fields, such as hydrology, which broadens its usefulness for researchers, practitioners, and students.