The first edition of my book "Climate and Circulation of the Tropics"
was reasonably up to date to the middle of 1985. In a second printing in
1988 it was possible to complete a few literature references and to
correct some misprints. However, vigorous research has taken place over
the past five years in various areas of tropical climate dynamics,
especially in the atmosphere-ocean mechanisms of climate anomalies,
climate prediction, ocean circulation, and paleoclimates. Promising
progress has also been made in the application of general circulation
modelling to tropical climate problems. In the present second edition,
named "Climate Dynamics of the Tropics", I have attempted to incorporate
much of the recent work to late 1990. Chapters 8 and 9 have been
essentially re-written, and major additions have been made to Chapters 4
and 12 in particular. I would like to acknowledge the continued support
by the U.S. National Science Foundation over the past five years. B.
Parthasarathy, Poona, and H. Lessmann, San Salvador, sent me updates of
data series not easily accessible. I have benefitted from discussions
with numerous colleagues in the United States and overseas. In the
preparation of this second edition, Marilyn Wolff patiently transferred
my illegible hand-written drafts onto word processor. Dierk Polzin and
Dan Skemp assisted me with the creation of the page masters and the
subject index and Christopher Collimore with the author index.