THE CLIMATE SYSTEM

        Weather
        Climate

      (lectures 15, 25, 26, 28)

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What is weather?

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      What is climate?

      1. Long Term (decade, century) PATTERNS of:
          temperature   precipitation
          clouds         winds
      2. The PROCESS of planetary redistribution of energy
        • Energy for climate is from the sun
        • The Earth is a sphere
        • The Earth rotates on its axis


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      The tropical surplus temperature causes air to raise.

      This pattern is called "Hadley Circulation"

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      We can envision three cells of raising and descending air, in the three climate zones. These are deflected by the rotation of the Earth - the Coriolis effect. cf

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      The three cells are broken up by the continents to produce atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns - the major features of global climate.
   

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      The seasons also result from the facts that energy for climate is from the sun
      The Earth is a sphere

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