This book grew out of the need to provide students with a solid introduction to modern fluid dynamics. It offers a broad grounding in the underlying principles and techniques used, with some emphasis on applications in astrophysics and planetary science.

The book comprehensively covers recent developments, methods and techniques, including, for example, new ideas on transitions to turbulence (via transiently growing stable linear modes), new approaches to turbulence (which remains the enigma of fluid dynamics), and the use of asymptotic approximation methods, which can give...