Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of Boxes
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- 2 RADIATION AND THE EARTH'S ENERGY BALANCE
- 3 THE ELEMENTS OF THE CLIMATE
- 4 EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
- 5 CONSEQUENCES OF CLIMATE CHANGE
- 6 THE MEASUREMENT OF CLIMATIC CHANGE
- 7 STATISTICS, SIGNIFICANCE AND CYCLES
- 8 THE CAUSES OF CLIMATIC CHANGE
- 9 MODELLING THE CLIMATE
- 10 PREDICTING CLIMATE CHANGE
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
3 - THE ELEMENTS OF THE CLIMATE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of Boxes
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- 2 RADIATION AND THE EARTH'S ENERGY BALANCE
- 3 THE ELEMENTS OF THE CLIMATE
- 4 EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
- 5 CONSEQUENCES OF CLIMATE CHANGE
- 6 THE MEASUREMENT OF CLIMATIC CHANGE
- 7 STATISTICS, SIGNIFICANCE AND CYCLES
- 8 THE CAUSES OF CLIMATIC CHANGE
- 9 MODELLING THE CLIMATE
- 10 PREDICTING CLIMATE CHANGE
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792–1822In understanding what constitutes climate variability and climate change, and predicting how each may evolve in the future, we need to have a clear idea of which aspects of the climate matter. This is crucial as these fluctuations are not simply a matter of the Earth as a whole warming up or cooling down, or even of certain regional climates (e.g. deserts) expanding or contracting. The mechanics of change may be driven by the physical processes described in Chapter 2, but how they combine with the different components of the climate is complicated by the network of links within the system. So, the objectives of this chapter are to establish what the most important components of the climate are, and to identify the strongest links between them, so we can have a framework for examining the essential aspects of climate variability and climate change.
THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEANS IN MOTION
How the atmosphere and the oceans transfer energy around the globe is the key to climate studies. It is also central to the sciences of meteorology and climatology.
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- Climate ChangeA Multidisciplinary Approach, pp. 32 - 72Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001