Fred Lutgens and Ed Tarbuck are professors emeriti from Illinois Central College. They have been good friends and colleagues since 1970. Between them, they have more than 60 years of experience teaching geoscience to undergraduates, and both have been recognized with awards as excellent and inspiring professors.

Lutgens and Tarbuck published their first college text, Earth Science, in 1976. That book, winner of the McGuffy Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association, is now in its thirteenth edition. In 1983, as the first edition of Earth was being prepared, renowned geoscience illustrator Dennis Tasa joined the author team. Since then, the three have collaborated on more than 25 projects as the dominant author team franchise in the physical geosciences.

The Atmosphere: An Introduction to Meteorology remains the standard introduction in its field, reinforcing basic concepts with everyday, easy-to-grasp examples. This revision retains the hallmarks professors have come to expect from Tarbuck and Lutgens: a friendly, largely non-technical narrative, timely coverage of recent atmospheric events, and carefully crafted artwork by leading science illustrator Dennis Tasa.

The Twelfth Edition maintains a student-friendly approach while evolving to address various course challenges and trends. New digital visualization and assessment tools are now available on MyMeteorologyLab, a new resource that both encourages student self-study and enables instructors to manage their courses online, with customizable assessments for students. Each chapter in this revision is organized by a new active learning path to help guide and engage non-science majors. A greater focus on popular and increasingly important Severe & Hazardous Weather applications, new critical visual analysis Eye on the Atmosphere features, as well as new discussions of the real-world career opportunities of meteorology with Professional Profile essays, make the science both relevant and exciting.