EESA09H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Climatology, Ipcc Fourth Assessment Report, Sewage Treatment
5 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
In discussions of climatic change an important distinction should first be made between the concepts of climate and weather. Weather can be defined as a description of the current conditions of the atmosphere: temperature, pressure, humidity, winds, etc. recall the quantities and instruments for observation from lecture 1. A prediction of the weather in the future consists of a set of estimates for the future values of these quantities. The sensitivity of the weather to very small changes places a very short limit (5-10 days) on our ability to make accurate predictions. Climate, in contrast, is a description of typical atmospheric conditions typical weather. This can take the form of statistical functions such as averages, variabilities, or extreme values of the quantities listed above. Because of the large amount of variability in weather conditions, at least 30 years of observational data should be used to describe climate, and ideally much more.
