Introduction

Abstract

A review will be given of potential vorticity (PV) and the PV perspective on atmospheric motion. At the end, some recent work on how PV ideas may help in the  consideration of the response to large-scale tropical heating will be discussed.

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Sir Brian Hoskins is a Royal Society Research Professor.  In January 2008 he became the first Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College, and now shares his time between Imperial and Reading University, where he is Professor of Meteorology.  His degrees are in mathematics from the University of Cambridge and he spent post-doc years in the USA before moving to Reading, where he became a professor in his thirties and was a head of department for six years. His research is in weather and climate, in particular the understanding of atmospheric motion from frontal to planetary scales. His international roles have included being vice-chair of the Joint Scientific Committee for the World Climate Research Programme and President of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences and involvement in the Nobel Prize winning international climate change assessments. He has also had numerous UK roles, including playing a major part in the 2000 Report by The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution that first proposed a 60% target for UK carbon dioxide emission reduction by 2050, and is currently a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change. He is a member of the science academies of the UK, USA, China and Europe and has received a number of awards including the top prizes of the UK and US Meteorological Societies and honorary DScs from the Universities of Bristol and East Anglia. He was knighted in 2007 for his services to the environment.