Theory and models of the atmospheric general circulation

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Earth's atmosphere is an environment that we are constantly immersed in but that we understand in a surprisingly limited way. We experience the atmosphere's circulation directly when we are exposed to wind and precipitation; we experience it indirectly through satellite images that reveal our local weather as part of global-scale patterns; and we even experience it virtually through computer-generated weather forecasts. But does experiencing the atmospheric circulation in various ways mean that we understand it? Not really: even scientists who devote their lives to studying the atmosphere must come to terms with how difficult it is to understand fully. So an important long-term project is to develop a theory for the "atmospheric general circulation", which consists of the patterns of surface temperature and winds, the jet streams, and so on. Think of the atmosphere as a physical system controlled by inputs including the amounts of sunlight received at different places, the composition of the atmosphere and the land surface. Atmospheric science aims to develop a theory for the atmospheric general circulation that would help us understand this system and its past behaviour, and its predict its future response to natural and human-induced change.