The material in this book is based predominantly on my recent work. It
is the first monograph on the subject, though some support material may
overlap other monographs. The investigation of wave packets and their
bi- furcations is very interesting, and useful theoretically and in
practice, not only in geophysical fluid dynamics, which is the field to
which the theory is being applied here, but also in other fields in
mathematics and the natural sciences. I hope that the applied
mathematician will find reading this book worthwhile, especially the
material on the behavior of highly nonlinear dy- namic systems. However,
it is my belief that applying the concepts and methods developed here to
other fields will be both interesting and con- structive, since there
are numerous phenomena in other areas of physics that share the
characteristics of those in geophysical fluid dynamics. The theory
developed here provides an effective tool to investigate the structure
and the structural changes of dynamic systems in physics. Applications
of the theory in geophysical fluid dynamics are an example of its
usefulness and effectiveness. Some of the results presented here give us
more insight into the nature of geophysical fluids. Moreover, the
material is presented systematically and developmentally. Necessary
basic knowledge is provided to make the book more readable for graduate
students and researchers in such fields as applied mathematics,
geophysical fluid dynamics, atmospheric sciences, and physical
oceanogra- phy.
