Why is the study of climate important in geography?
Answers
Climate is one of the most important factors in our environment and we need to have predictions about its behavior to know how safe we are. It effects our food sources, our health and our homes. It would be foolish to be this scientifically and technologically advanced and not take full advantage of exploring climate. Quite frankly it would be irrational.
Climatology deals with the study of climate. It is a branch of the atmospheric sciences and a subfield of physical geography, which is one of the Earth Sciences. In recent times, Climatology now includes aspects of oceanography, hydrology and biogeochemistry. Basic knowledge of climate can be used within shorter term weather forecasting while climate models are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the weather and climate system to projections of future climate. There are different approaches in Climatology: (1) Paleoclimatology which seeks to reconstruct past climates through examining records such as ice cores and tree rings (dendroclimatology); (2) Paleotempestology which relies on the use of past records to determine hurricane frequency over millennia; (3) use of meteorological data accumulated over many years to study contemporary climates; (4) use of statistical or mathematical models to study the atmosphere and its dynamics; (5) modeling for understanding past, present and potential future climates; and (5) historical climatology where climates are related to human history and thus focuses only on the last few thousand years. Since climate is a long term representation of weather on a large scale and is a product of complex processes, researchers need to have very good understanding of physical laws usually expressed as differential equations. This makes it difficult to conduct climate research since the equations are normally coupled and are non-linear, thus requiring numerical methods to obtain approximate solutions. Sometimes climate is modeled as a stochastic process when approximating very complex processes. These activities necessitate the quantitative approach in climatology.
Answer:
Climate change occurs when changes in Earth's climate system result in new weather patterns that remain in place for an extended period of time. This length of time can be as short as a few decades to as long as millions of years. The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun, with a relatively tiny amount from earth's interior. The climate system also gives off energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.
The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Climate change is a long-term, sustained trend of change in climate. Such changes can be the result of "internal variability", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate change can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Human activities can also change climate, and are presently driving climate change through global warming.[1]
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