Theory and models of the atmospheric general circulation

地球的大气层是一个我们不断沉浸在其中的环境，但我们对它的了解却非常有限。当我们暴露在风和降水中时，我们直接感受到大气环流;我们通过卫星图像间接感受到它，这些图像显示了我们当地的天气，作为全球范围模式的一部分;我们甚至通过计算机生成的天气预报来体验它。但是，以各种方式体验大气环流是否意味着我们理解它？事实并非如此：即使是毕生致力于研究大气层的科学家也必须承认，要完全理解大气层是多么困难。因此，一个重要的长期项目是发展一个“大气环流”的理论，它包括表面温度和风的模式，急流等。把大气看作是一个由输入控制的物理系统，包括不同地方接收到的阳光量，大气和陆地表面的组成。大气科学的目标是发展一种大气环流理论，帮助我们了解这个系统及其过去的行为，并预测其未来对自然和人为变化的反应。

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.