Proc.

ASA 8 (1)1989 McBride 105

Indians needed accurate knowledge of the science of time in

The production is attractive on the whole, with many good
order to perform the various Vedic sacrifices at the times
illustrations, particularly the map material of Chapter 5.1 noted
correctly predicted in advance. The modern Chinese
one or two errors —for example, the inconsistency between the
density of iron, rounded to 8g/cm3 in the figure on p. 69, but
astronomical almanac can be traced back to the second century
(incorrectly) to 7 g/cm3 in the text a few lines later. The figure
B.C. and since then it has been helping farmery to know what
kind of weather to expect in each solar term (in total 24 terms
caption on p. 124 contains an error; and, search as I might,
during a year). They are both related to the calculation and
I could not find the promised A' and B' in the top photograph
observation of the positions of the Sun, Moon, Planets and Stars
on p. 111. One small annoying feature in layout is the insertion
and of the solar and lunar eclipses. On the basis of practical
of the page numbers on the left for both LHS and RHS pages.
astronomy, the further development on algebra, trigonometry
The Appendices contain a comprehensive glossary, a summary
and thus the improvement on planetary theories were necessarily
of Mercury's orbital and physical data, and a listing of the
planet's surface features. pushed forward. Therefore, to compile all the individual papers
into this book makes readers be able to historically and
There is an excellent example of the speed with which
scientifically understand the progression of astronomy in the
information in the rapidly developing field of solar system
world.
physics becomes out of date. The blurb on the dust jacket
(presumably written early) asserts that Mercury is the smallest
Ancient records about unusual celestial phenomena over
planet. The text (at pp. 9 and 66) sets the matter right by
thousands of years could be regarded as the second feature in
indicating that Pluto has recently displaced it from this
the history of oriental astronomy. The authors provided us with
distinction. But, even in the months since the book was
various historical materials of aurorae, sunspots, comets,
published, the 3000-3600 km diameter estimate quoted for Pluto
eclipses, meteors, planetary conjunctions and even supernovae
has been reduced to about 2250 km by measures in the infra-
and their remnants. A number of photos of ancient records and
red and by observations of the rare series of mutual eclipses
astronomical instruments compiled in this book give me a very
of Pluto and Charon that have been occurring in the last few
deep impression of how the ancient oriental people refined them
years (see, e.g., Tholen, Buie and Swift, Astron. /., 94, 1681,
with highly developed techniques.
1987). Besides the ancient records and the studies the authors did
on them, it is J. A. Eddy's paper that aroused me to more
I would warmly recommend this volume to anyone looking
interests. To make the past serve the present is often our
for a succinct summary of the present state of our knowledge
purpose. J. A. Eddy summarized three problems in modern
of Mercury, and, in particular, of the research results of the
astronomy that are heavily based on the ancient records from
Mariner 10 mission. It forms part of the Smithsonian Library
the Middle East and Orient: the studies of solar variability, of
of the Solar System (apparently the second in this series,
the secular variation of the Earth's rotation and of the
following Whipple's The Mystery of Comets), and I look
occurrence and physics of novae, super-novae and comets.
forward to further volumes presenting the results of particular
missions to other planets in similar style. Because this book is restricted to 'History of Oriental
Astronomy', it, perhaps, cannot include more general papers
in these subjects. Such papers would have increased my interest.
In summary, this is a useful reference book for the historians
and archaeological astronomers as well as those who are engaged
in the research on secular variations of celestial phenomena.
History of Oriental Astronomy Those who are working on the philosophy of science
development would probablyfindit is valuable. However I find
G. Swarup, A. K. Bag and K. S. Shukla, Cambridge that following up some of the referenced papers on ancient
University Press, 1988, $99, H/c Indian astronomy requires extreme patience as they contain so
Reviewed by Dr Wang Zheng Ming, ShaanxiAstronomical many tedious Indian expressions.
Observatory, Academia Sinica, Visiting Astronomer Chatterton
Astronomy Department, University of Sydney

It is, perhaps, more difficult for me to give a review on such

books concerned here than to make a comment on a monograph
or a popular science book for the reason that the proceedings
of IAU colloquium No. 91 include nearly 40 papers covering
mainly the characteristics and achievements of oriental
astronomy, interregional development and mutual influences,
ancient data relating to unusual celestial phenomena, ancient
instruments, etc., and that I am subject to the constraint of
knowing nothing about the civilization in ancient India and
Middle East. However, the book does attract me by not only
the abundant historical materials but also by the related topics
with emphasis on how theoretical studies were gradually
nourished by the observational astronomy.
In the first part of this book, a couple of articles expound
that oriental astronomy originates in time-determination as an
applied science and various calendars occupied a very important
position in ancient Indian and Chinese astronomy. Ancient
The Physics of Atmospheres
John T . Houghton, Second Edition, 1986. 271pp. Cambridge
University Press. $35.50 p/b
Reviewed by John L. McBride (Bureau of Meteorology
Research Centre)
The aim of this book is stated in the preface as being 'to
introduce physics students at both undergraduate and graduate
levels to the physical processes which govern the structure and
circulation of a planetary atmosphere'. In this the book is
possibly unique, as offhand I can think of no other atmospheric
science text oriented specifically towards physics students. It is
also one of the very few modern texts attempting to cover all
the main areas of study in atmospheric science rather than

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 108.62.241.78, on 21 May 2019 at 11:31:56, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1323358000023079
 106 Hunstead
specialising in a sub-field such as dynamics, cloud processes
etc.
With these two attributes if it is done well, it automatically
becomes an important book; and my overall assessment is that
such is clearly the case.
The title is slightly misleading, as though illustrative examples
are used throughout based on the atmospheres of other planets,
of the order of ninety per cent of the book is on the physics
of the Earth's atmosphere. The early chapters are on simple but
fundamental concepts such as atmospheric composition,
equilibrium temperatures of planets, radiative equilibrium and
very simple atmospheric thermodynamics. The remainder of the
book consists of a chapter on each of the following topics: more
complex radiation transfer; the middle and upper atmospheres;
clouds; dynamics; atmospheric waves; turbulence; the general
circulation; numerical modelling; global observation;
atmospheric predictability and climatic change. There are also
ten useful appendices containing data such as physical constants,
atmospheric composition; and relevant data for radiative
transfer calculations.
The author has a distinguished research background, is a
Fellow of the Royal Society, and at the time of publication was
the Director General of the U.K. Meteorological Office.
Consistent with this background, he understands the subject
matter well; and this is reflected in the book which is both
authoritative and, as far as I can tell, free of errors.
The style of the book is to be concise, and to put across
important physical concepts, but not to be comprehensive. Thus
you can turn to it to learn about the greenhouse effect, the
primitive equations, baroclinic instability, the tephigram, the
photochemical reactions involving ozone, Rossby waves and a
host of other phenomena and analysis models. They are all
described clearly and simply but each in only a page or so.
Accordingly I feel the book will be invaluable as a reference
to the large number of practising atmospheric scientists who
came into the field from other disciplines (such as physics or
mathematics) and to those meteorologists whose basic training
was some years back and who may not be up to date on current
theoretical ideas. It thus is an essential acquisition for the
libraries of all meteorological research and forecast offices, and
a very useful personal acquisition for meteorologists.
As for the group to whom it is directed, that is physics
students, I believe they'll have problems following much of the
book without the assistance of an instructor. There are a number
of subtleties involved in meteorologists' usage of concepts like
entropy, the first law of thermodynamics, scale analysis of
equations, and non-cartesian and non-curvilinear co-ordinate
systems. Without at least some reference to the existence of the
subtleties, I expect students will have difficulty reconciling these
concepts with the treatments of the same topics in their physics
texts. Despite this, as said earlier, there really is no other general
text directed to this group; so the book is an important
acquisition for physics libraries too.
There are a few final points that should be made. A large
number of problems or student exercises are included at the end
of each chapter; and these are used throughout to extend the
material in the text. Differences between this and thefirstedition
of the book are substantial but are concentrated into four of
the thirteen chapters. Nearly thirty new problems have also been
added. In my opinion the book has two faults of omission. The
first is that it hardly hints at the important role played by phase
changes involving latent heat release in many aspects of
atmospheric dynamics and energetics. The other is that there
is virtually no mention of the weather systems occupying the
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 108.62.241.78, on 21 May 2019 at 11:31:56, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1323358000023079
Proc.ASA 8 (1)1989
tropical half of the Earth's surface, including thunderstorms,
tropical cyclones and monsoonal circulations.
Superluminal Radio Sources
Ed. J . Anton Zensus and Timothy J . Pearson, Cambridge
University Press 1987, pp. 361, $A108.00 hb
Reviewed by Richard W. Hunstead
The term 'superluminal motion' was coined in the mid-1970s
to describe structural changes in radio sources which implied
apparent tranverse velocities greater than the velocity of light.
Finding an explanation of this phenomenon has been an urgent
and compelling task requiring the cooperation of astronomers
in many different countries. At the same time, confirmation of
superluminal expansion has provided the impetus for rapid
improvements in the quality of images formed by Very Long
Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). This excellent compilation of
39 papers addresses the current status of the evidence and
theories. It is the outcome of a workshop held at Big Bear Solar
Observatory, California, 28-30 October 1986 in honour of
Professor Marshall H. Cohen, whose sixtieth birthday was
celebrated. Marshall Cohen has been a pioneer of VLBI and
research on superluminal sources.
It is barely 20 years since the first VLBI experiments were
successfully carried out using tape-recording systems. The very
small sizes of many extragalactic radio sources (— light months)
had already been inferred from the time scale of significant
changes in flux density and from interplanetary scintillation.
When it was found that many sources were still unresolved on
baselines across Canada and the U.S., experiments were
mounted between the U.S. and Australia, Sweden and the
U.S.S.R. Following early experiments in Australia which
demonstrated the potential of the NASA deep space tracking
antennas for VLBI, thefirstindications of rapid changes in the
structure of 3C279 were found around 1970 using a trans-Pacific
baseline. (It is ironic that not long after the pioneering VLBI
experiments in Australia the 26-m NASA-JPL dish at Island
Lagoon was scrapped through lack of interest/finance among
the Australian radio-astronomical community — how valuable
such a dish would have been for the Australia Telescope Long
Baseline Array!)
The initial reports in 1971 of apparent superluminal (~3c)
motion in 3C279 (a quasar with a redshift of 0.538) generated
a good deal of public attention and controversy. As always,
there were some 'flat-earthers' (as Cohen called them) who were
prepared to abandon special relativity or cosmological redshifts.
However, the theoretical prediction was well ahead of the
detection —fiveyears earlier, Martin Rees had shown that time-
dilation effects in a source which was expanding relativistically
would result in 'faster than light' transverse motion. The
relativistic expansion was invoked originally to explain the rapid
flux variations in compact sources; now, from the morphology
of the VLBI radio structures, it was also necessary to invoke
beaming of the emission. At the time of this workshop,
superluminal motion had been confirmed in around 25 compact
sources and subluminal expansion in only 5, sufficient to
demonstrate that relativistic beaming is probably important in
all compact radio sources. Several authors were concerned to