This small collection of research papers is composed of papers presented at the Memorial Symposium dedicated to Seymour Hess, which took place during the General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics in August 1983. It is an interesting and useful collection of papen representing the current state of planetary atmospheric science and meteorology.
The papers encompass Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Perhaps most interesting of all was the paper, by Gierasch and Conratch, which describes energy conversion processes in the outer planets. In this paper the rather peculiar 'meteorology' which occurs within the atmospheres of the outer planets, where pressures can become very great, is discussed. The authors demonstrate that, in the absence Qf non-equilibrium thermodynamic processes, the transport of heat outwards from the high temperature planetary interiors must be accompanied by generation of considerable kinetic energy. Buoyancy contrasts within these atmospheres is o€ten generated by condensation of atmospheric constituents. O f particular importance, it appears, are phase changes of substances such as