General Definition and Importance
Global circulation of the atmosphere describes the basic global-scale circulation patterns that explain the major regional differences in the weather and climate. For example, it tells us why tropical latitudes are hot and rainy throughout the year and why all major deserts are located in subtropical latitudes. The explanation of global circulation also helps us apply the fundamental physics that are important to weather and climate systems and how those systems might change in the future climate. Global circulation also demonstrates how the weather and climate in one region might be related to another remote region. An example of such remote atmospheric connections is demonstrated between tropical and midlatitude atmosphere. This remote atmospheric connection is used to improve long-range forecasts by monitoring the conditions of the tropical atmosphere and how it will likely modulate weather over the United States.
Key Concepts
- Seasonal cycle of global temperature
- Identification of global surface types
- Global cloud patterns from satellite images
- Major atmospheric circulation cells
- Interactions between atmospheric and oceanic circulations
- Monsoons
- Tropical-extratropical interactions
Oklahoma State Standards
We found that understanding Earth’s climate is relevant to meeting the 2020 Oklahoma Academic Standards below:
3.ESS2.2 Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.
- Climate describes a range of an area’s typical weather conditions and the extent to which those conditions vary over years to centuries.
6.ESS2.5 Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses result in changes in weather conditions.
- Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things.
- These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns.
- Because these patterns are so complex, we ather can be predicted only probabilistically.
6.ESS2.6 Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth causes patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
- Variations in density due to variations in temperature and salinity drive a global pattern on interconnected ocean currents.
- Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things.
- These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns.
- The ocean exerts a major influence on weather and climate by absorbing energy from the Sun, and globally redistributing it through ocean currents.
ES.ESS2.4 Analyze and interpret data to explore how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems causes changes to the atmosphere and climate.
- The geological record shows that changes to global and regional climate can be caused by interactions among changes in the Sun’s energy output or Earth’s orbit, tectonic events, ocean circulation, volcanic activity, glaciers, vegetation, and human activities. These changes can occur on a variety of time scales from sudden (e.g., volcanic ash clouds) to intermediate (ice ages) to very long-term (tectonic cycles).
- The foundation for Earth’s global climate system is the electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, as well as its reflection, absorption, storage, and redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and land systems, and this energy’s re-radiation into space.
- Cyclical changes in the shape of Earth’s orbit around the Sun, together with changes in the tilt of the planet’s axis of rotation, both occurring over hundreds of thousands of years, have altered the intensity and distribution of sunlight falling on the Earth. These phenomena cause a cycle of iceages and other changes in climate.
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