Introduction to Climate, Weather and Element of Climate

Climatology

Climatology is the science that describes and explains the nature of climate, why it differ from place to place and how it is related to the other elements of the natural environment and to human activities.

Regional climatology deals with the identification or significant climatic characteristics and the classification of climate. Macro-climate, meso-climate and micro-climate are the topics under the study of regional climatology.

Physical climatology deals with the nature of climate and why it differs from place to place.

Applied climatology explores the regional climate to other phenomenon and considers its potential effects on human welfare, finally confronting the possibility of modifying climate to meet human needs.

Weather and Climate

Weather

The day to day state of the atmosphere, consisting of short-term variation of mass and energy exchange within the atmosphere and between the atmosphere and earth surface variables is called weather. It results from the process that attempts to equalize the difference in the distribution of net radiant energy from the sun. It plays a vital role in the composition and functioning of an ecosystem. The different atmospheric variables and earth surface variables producing weather temperature,precipitation,humidity, wind velocity and direction, soil moisture content, drought conditions etc.

Climate

At a region, a climate is a summary of the past weather events that have occurred at that location. The climate is typically described by the statistics of atmospheric and surface variables like temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind velocity and direction, soil moisture content etc. Statistics may be in terms of long-term average or the other measure such as minimum or maximum temperature, a length of growing seasons, frequency of flood etc.

It determines the internal vegetation, suitability for human habitation and status of biodiversity. It influence on human welfare event range from immediate effects of weather events to complex responses associated with climate change. Flood, drought, hurricane, heat wave, as an immediate fact to melt of polar ice, a rise in sea level expansion of desert area and world hunger associated with climate change.

Elements of Climate and Climate Controls

Elements of climate are those aspects that define the weather of the particular area. The major elements that determine the climate are precipitation, temperature, humidity, cloud, wind velocity, and direction etc. The climate of particular area or place refers to the distribution of these elements are treated separately as it is easier to investigate the variation of one variable. However, while determining the climate, the variation of all the parameters should be considered and interrelated.

Climatic controls, on the other hand, are the factors that affect the factors that affect the distribution of these climatic elements. Some of the most important climatic controls are latitude, altitude. distribution of land and water surface (land using planning), topography etc. Besides these major climatic controls, there are other factors that contribute to the unequal distribution of climatic elements. Human activity is one such example that interacts with the physical environment and directly affects the climate. The climatic elements themselves are also can be treated climatic controls as they affect each other greatly.

The Sun and Earth's Relation

• Solar radiation reaching on the outer space of the atmosphere depending on the energy output of sun, distance from earth to the sun etc.
• Transparency of atmosphere.
• The angle at which the sun rays strikes the earth.

Rotation and Revolving of Earth

The seasonal variation in the position of the sun causes a difference in the temporal distance of insolation on the latitude. The equatorial region has two insolation maximum because of this seasonal variation of the sun's position. During equinoxes, the equatorial region has the maximum insolation and increase from pole towards the equator. In the summer solstice, it increases from the South Pole towards the North Pole and during the winter solstice, it increases towards the South Pole.