Description: A comprehensive overview of essential statistical concepts, useful statistical methods, data visualization, and modern computing tools for the climate sciences and many others such as geography and environmental engineering. It is an invaluable reference for students and researchers in climatology and its connected fields who wish to learn data science, statistics, R and Python programming. The examples and exercises in the book empower readers to work on real climate data from station observations, remote sensing and simulated results. For example, students can use R or Python code to read and plot the global warming data and the global precipitation data in netCDF, csv, txt, or JSON; and compute and interpret empirical orthogonal functions. The book's computer code and real-world data allow readers to fully utilize the modern computing technology and updated datasets. Online supplementary resources include R code and Python code, data files, figure files, tutorials, slides and sample syllabi.
Brief description: Samuel S. P. Shen is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at San Diego State University, and Visiting Research Mathematician at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. Formerly, he was McCalla Professor of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at the University of Alberta, Canada, and President of the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society. He has held visiting positions at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the NOAA Climate Prediction Center, and the University of Tokyo. Shen holds a B.Sc. degree in Engineering Mechanics and a Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics.
Review Quotes: 'Statistics and Data Visualization in Climate Science with R and Python by Sam Shen and Jerry North is a fabulous addition to the set of tools for scientists, educators and students who are interested in working with data relevant to climate variability and change ... I can testify that this book is an enormous help to someone like me. I no longer can simply ask my grad students and postdocs to download and analyze datasets, but I still want to ask questions and find data-based answers. This book perfectly fills the 40-year gap since I last had to do all these things myself, and I can't wait to begin to use it ... I am certain that teachers will find the book and supporting materials extremely beneficial as well. Professors Shen and North have created a resource of enormous benefit to climate scientists.' Phillip A. Arkin, University of Maryland