Errata
An early printing of the book (referred to as Edition 1a) contained several significant misprints. To determine whether you have Edition 1a, look at the back cover. Corrected copies of the book (referred to as Edition 1b) have a red star printed next to the ISBN barcode. Edition 1a does not have the red star.
If you have Edition 1a, you can request a free replacement from Elsevier. Contact Elsevier Customer Service at 800-545-2522 to request a replacement copy. Have the ISBN number available when you call.
Corrections to Edition 1b (red star next to barcode)
Chapter 10
Page 100, Exercise 3 (units). In this problem wavelengths should be between 1 and 30 micrometers, not 1 and 30 nanometers.
Chapter 14
Page 130, In the program WRITE_RANDOM_NETCDF, the line to calculate the linear regression should look like this:
b = REGRESS(w, t, YFIT = T_fit, CONST = a, /DOUBLE)
(In the book the slash was inadvertently moved from the /DOUBLE keyword to the CONST keyword.)
Chapter 15
Page 151, Exercise 5 (clarification). The quantity h0, referred to as the hour of sunrise and sunset, is the angle by which the Earth rotates between sunrise and local noon, expressed in radians. Local noon is the instant when the sun is due south or north (or directly overhead) of the longitude-latitude point of interest.
Page 151, Exercise 6 (clarification). The quantity h, referred to as the local time, is the angle by which the Earth has rotated relative to local noon, expressed in radians.
Page 151, Exercise 7 (omitted value for S0 ). The quantity S0 is known as the solar constant. A good estimate of its current value is 1367 W m^-2.
Corrections to Edition 1a (no red star next to barcode)
Chapter 3
Page 21, the end of the last paragraph should read "...examples of good and bad programming style are given in Appendix A."
Chapter 6
Page 52, line 11. The two strings \dqt should replaced by double quotes. The line should appear like this:
IDL> print, x, format = "(F20.15)"
Chapter 9
During printing, critical characters (left and right braces { and }) were omitted from several examples of structure definitions in Chapter 9. The problems occur in the three scripts named_structure.pro, anonymous_structure.pro, and hierarchical_structure.pro as well as in the procedure WX_OB__DEFINE. These examples are included in the downloadable examples. The downloadable files are correct, so the scripts will execute correctly as shown in the book. The listings of the scripts in the book are incorrect. Correct versions are shown below.
Page 83, near the bottom. In the script named_structure.pro the structure definition should look like this:
data = {COORDINATE, $
values : FINDGEN(4), $
n : 4}
Page 86, near the top. In the procedure WX_OB__DEFINE the structure definition should look like this:
data = {WX_OB, $
station_name : '', $
T : 0.0, $
T_units : '', $
p : 0.0, $
p_units : ''}
For the string variables station_name, T_units, and p_units, the values to the right of the colon are two consecutive single quotation marks, not a double quotation mark. This initializes those variables to an empty string (a string containing no characters).
Page 87, just below the middle of the page. In the script anonymous_structure.pro the structure definition should look like this:
data = {name : name, $
values : x, $
n : N_ELEMENTS(x)}
Page 89, the three structure definitions near the top of the page. In the script hierarchical_structure.pro the structure definitions should look like this:
nx = 20
x = {name : 'Longitude', $
values : FLTARR(nx)}
ny = 25
y = {name : 'Latitude', $
values : FLTARR(ny)}
data = {name : 'Temperature', $
values : FLTARR(nx, ny), $
x : x, $
y : y}
Chapter 10
Page 94, middle of page. The printed text in the example should look like this:
IDL> print, i, a, b, c, d, text
34567 15.0000 123457. 9.87600e+23
7.6540000e-21This is a string.
In the example immediately following, the double quote should be two single quotes with a space between:
IDL> print, i, a, b, c, d, ' ', text
34567 15.0000 123457. 9.87600e+23
7.6540000e-21 This is a string.
Page 100, Exercise 3 (units). In this problem wavelengths should be between 1 and 30 micrometers, not 1 and 30 nanometers.
Chapter 14
Page 130, In the program WRITE_RANDOM_NETCDF, the line to calculate the linear regression should look like this:
b = REGRESS(w, t, YFIT = T_fit, CONST = a, /DOUBLE)
(In the book the slash was inadvertently moved from the /DOUBLE keyword to the CONST keyword.)
Chapter 15
Page 151, Exercise 5 (clarification). The quantity h0, referred to as the hour of sunrise and sunset, is the angle by which the Earth rotates between sunrise and local noon, expressed in radians. Local noon is the instant when the sun is due south or north (or directly overhead) of the longitude-latitude point of interest.
Page 151, Exercise 6 (clarification). The quantity h, referred to as the local time, is the angle by which the Earth has rotated relative to local noon, expressed in radians.
Page 151, Exercise 7. The quantity S0 is known as the solar constant. A good estimate of its current value is 1367 W m^-2.
Thanks to the following contributors:
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•Dr. David Fanning, Fanning Consulting
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•Dr. David Snyder, Gallaudet University
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•Mike Williams, The University of Alabama in Huntsville