'Written with impressive clarity, this new textbook covers all the key types of geophysical instability and provides a window to more advanced topics such as transient optimal growth and transition to turbulence. In addition to presenting the mathematical fundamentals the authors present satisfying physical explanations for the complex mechanisms, while throughout the text (and homework exercises) numerical methods and simple codes are used to familiarise students with this important tool for simulating instability mechanisms numerically. For all these reasons it is truly an outstanding textbook - for class teaching or self-study. I will use it myself to create a new graduate course!' Eyal Heifetz, Tel Aviv University '... large number of analytical and numerical exercises, make the book suitable for use in teaching a graduate or upper-level undergraduate course on the subject of geophysical fluid dynamics. The material covered would be helpful both to atmospheric science students and researchers who wish to understand the mathematical theory and numerical simulation techniques and to applied mathematics students and researchers who wish to learn more about the geophysical processes and the mechanisms that lead to the instabilities.' Lucy J. Campbell, Mathematical Reviews Clippings