01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Citation
Hartmann, D. L. (2026). Global Physical Climatology (3rd ed.). Elsevier.
Chapter Summary
The third edition has thirteen chapters and, according to the author's page, about 549 pages. Elsevier describes the book as delineating the science of climate and climate change across the atmosphere, oceans and land surfaces. It begins with a detailed introduction to the climate system, then introduces the physics: the principles and processes that determine the structure and climate of the atmosphere, oceans and land surfaces. More advanced sections apply that knowledge to natural variability in the present and the past, the sensitivity of climate to external forces, explanations for the ice ages, and the science of human-induced climate change. Physical principles and computer models for understanding past climate and predicting future climate are also discussed.
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Climate System
The introductory chapter presents the climate system, spanning atmosphere, oceans and land surfaces, as the framework for the physics that follows.
Chapters 2–4: The Global Energy Balance; Atmospheric Radiative Transfer and Climate; The Energy Balance of the Surface
Three chapters on energy. The global energy balance is followed by radiative transfer in the atmosphere and its role in climate, then the energy balance at the surface. They supply the physical base for the rest of the book.
Chapter 5: The Hydrologic Cycle
The hydrologic cycle, the movement of water through the climate system, which follows the three energy chapters.
Chapters 6–7: Atmospheric General Circulation and Climate; The Ocean General Circulation and Climate
Two chapters on large-scale circulation, one for the atmosphere and one for the ocean, each linked to the climate it produces.
Chapter 8: Natural Intraseasonal and Interannual Variability
The chapter on natural variability on timescales from weeks to years. It was added in the second edition as a new chapter on modes of natural variability, according to the author's page, and is retained in the third.
Chapters 9–10: History and Evolution of Earth's Climate; Climate Sensitivity and Feedback Mechanisms
Chapter 9 looks at the history of Earth's climate, and Chapter 10 at how sensitive climate is to forcing and at feedback mechanisms. Together with the chapters after them, these belong to the more advanced part of the book that applies the earlier physics.
Chapter 11: Global Climate Models
Introduces the computer models that the publisher says are needed to understand past climate and predict the future.
Chapters 12–13: Natural Climate Change; Anthropogenic Climate Change
The book ends with natural climate change, including the ice ages, and then human-induced climate change.
Key Concepts
Chapters 1–5: Energy and Water
- Global energy balance: the budget of incoming and outgoing energy that sets the planet's temperature.
- Radiative transfer: how radiation passes through and is absorbed by the atmosphere.
- Surface energy balance: the exchange of energy at the surface.
- Hydrologic cycle: the circulation of water through the system.
Chapters 6–8: Circulation and Variability
- General circulation: the large-scale flow patterns of atmosphere and ocean.
- Intraseasonal and interannual variability: natural fluctuations over weeks to years.
Chapters 9–13: Change, Sensitivity and Models
- Climate sensitivity and feedbacks: how strongly climate responds to a forcing and what amplifies or damps it.
- Global climate models: numerical models used to study past and future climate.
- Anthropogenic climate change: climate change caused by human activity.
Critical Analysis
Strengths
- Physics first, then applications. The structure runs from energy balance and radiative transfer to circulation, variability, sensitivity, models and change, so each later chapter can use earlier results.
- Wide scope in one book. Elsevier lists atmosphere, oceans, land surface, past climates and human-induced change among its subjects, and notes problem sets for learning and up-to-date data and modelling results.
- Author expertise. The author is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, with research in atmospheric dynamics, radiation and climate feedbacks, fitting a text that centres on those topics.
- Established text. The book is now in its third edition, with earlier editions in 1994 and 2016, and the author maintains a page of corrections and instructor figures for earlier editions.
Limitations
- Prerequisites. Elsevier says the book suits students with at least one year of college physics and calculus; geography students without these will find it difficult.
- Physical focus. Human dimensions of climate change are not among the chapter titles; the last chapter treats anthropogenic climate change as science.
- Length and range. At about 549 pages the book covers a great range of material, so a single term has to select chapters.
Where It Fits in the Course
This is the quantitative climate text in the physical geography course. Introducing Physical Geography and Physical Geography are introductory surveys that need little science background, Geosystems is a comprehensive introduction organised around the Earth's systems, and Fundamentals of the Physical Environment treats the atmosphere in several chapters within a wider systems approach. Hartmann goes far beyond these on energy, radiation and circulation, and is the book to take after one of them when a student wants climate treated as physics.
How to Use This Book
It is written for upper-division undergraduates and graduates in meteorology, atmospheric science, oceanography and other environmental fields, and for researchers and policymakers who want the physical basis of climate science. Prerequisites are a year of college physics and calculus.
Read in order through Chapter 7, since energy balance, radiation and circulation are the base. Chapters 8 to 11 can then be taken selectively, depending on whether the interest is variability, climate history or modelling. Chapters 12 and 13 are the natural endpoint for anyone studying climate change. Work the problem sets, and use the author's instructor materials page for figures.