Scales of global climate

  • recall that climate is loosely defined as "average weather"
  • however, you need to be careful of what geographic area you are talking about
  • need to define climate on different spatial scales:
    • microclimate - near the ground over your front yard
    • mesoclimate - over a field or few fields (a few square kilometers)
    • macroclimate - scale of a state or country
    • global climate - over entire earth

we will focus on large-scale climate

  • indeed, climate extremes exist on the planet, so what controls climate???