1.1: Introduction to Climate Science

Weather vs. Climate

• The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time

  • Weather — short timescales (days, weeks)

  • Climate — long timescales (decades)

• Climate: the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area

  • Eg. temperature, wind, precipitation, humidity

• Describing climate

  • The National Weather Service plots daily weather activity and compares it to climate data

  • Weather is portrayed as daily highs and lows

  • Climate is the averaged values of weather

• When meteorologists refer to weather as above or below average, they refer to an averaged value (of temperature, precipitation, etc.) that gives us an idea of what type of weather we should expect in a particular (climate)

The Earth’s Coordinate System

• To talk about the Earth, we need to be able to locate places on it. To do this, we use a coordinate system of latitude and longitude

• Latitude: the distance in the north-south direction between the location and the equator, measured in degrees

  • Tropics: Low latitude areas with a small value of latitude (< 23.5°)

  • Polar Regions: High latitude areas (> 66°) that are contained within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles

  • Middle latitudes: the area in between the Tropics and Polar Regions

• Longitude: the angle in the east-west direction, from the prime meridian, measured in degrees

Bodies of Climate Science

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change

Measurements Related to Climate Science

• As discussed in chapter 2 of the MCC textbook, there are many measures of climate change including

  • Ground thermometers

  • Satellite temperature measurements

  • Ice coverage

  • Ocean temperature

  • Sea level

• These factors all corroborate each other and support the idea that the climate is changing, with the Earth warming