There are large-scale fluid systems in the gravity field, such as the Earth's atmosphere and oceans, which posses some features different from those of classical thermodynamic systems. For example, the oceans and atmosphere possess in homogeneous melt equilibrium states with the same amount of mass and energy. The zeroth law of classical thermodynamics can be applied for the inhomogeneous thermodynamic systems, and the irreversible variations may not be explained only by the change of classical thermodynamic entropy. Therefore, there has been a need for a new theory to study the particular systems. This book introduces a new science, called large-scale inhomogeneous thermodynamics, to study the inhomogeneous thermodynamic systems. The first eight chapters of the book illustrate the basic theories of inhomogeneous thermodynamics. Special attention is paid to the differences between the irreversible processes in a classical thermodynamic system and an inhomogeneous thermodynamic system. New physical concepts and relationships are introduced to study irreversible processes in the inhomogeneous thermodynamic systems which the classical thermodynamics fails to explain. With the new theories introduced, we are able to estimate more realistically how much the kinetic energy is created everyday in, for example, the Earth's atmosphere and oceans and improve greatly the predictions for development and movement of atmospheric set disturbances such as hurricanes and tornadoes. Examples are given in the book, together with the successful interpretation of the climatological distributions of the baroclinic storm tracks, blockings, tropical cyclones and thunderstorms in the troposphere. The energyconversions, related to different floor patterns, are studied by the theory of air engines in which the p-V diagrams are different from those studied in the classical thermodynamics and maybe interesting to engineering. In particular, a new reversible heat engine is forwarded to study the mean meridional circulations in the atmosphere.

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