Draft:Outline of climatology

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to climatology:

Climatology (from Greek κλίμα, klima, "slope"; and -λογία, -logia) or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. Climate concerns the atmospheric condition during an extended to indefinite period of time; weather is the condition of the atmosphere during a relative brief period of time. The main topics of research are the study of climate variability, mechanisms of climate changes and modern climate change. This topic of study is regarded as part of the atmospheric sciences and a subdivision of physical geography, which is one of the Earth sciences. Climatology includes some aspects of oceanography and biogeochemistry.

What type of thing is climatology?

Climatology can be described as all of the following:

• Academic discipline
• Branch of science
  • Branch of Earth science – field of science related to the planet Earth. Earth science is the branch of science dealing with the physical constitution of the earth and its atmosphere.
    • Atmospheric science
    • Subfield of physical geography

Branches of climatology

• Applied climatology – uses climatic principles and analysis to solve human problems related to water resources, agriculture, health, and forestry.
• Dynamic climatology – studies the atmospheric motion of the atmosphere such as disturbance and wind circulation. It was introduced by Bergeron 1930.
• Earth rainfall climatology –
  • United States rainfall climatology –
• Historical climatology –
• Paleoclimatology –
• Paleotempestology –
• Physical climatology – studies the atmospheric energy in the climate. It was introduced by Milenkovitch in 1820 and Simpson in 1824.
• Synoptic climatology – studies the regional and local climate of an area with the aid of climatic weather. It was initiated by Koppen in 1870.
• Tornado climatology –
• Tropical cyclone climatology
  • Pacific typhoon climatology –
  • Tropical cyclone rainfall climatology –
    • China tropical cyclone rainfall climatology –
    • Mexico tropical cyclone rainfall climatology –
  • Tropical cyclone windspeed climatology –
• Urban climatology –

History of climatology

History of climatology

• Historical climatology
  • Climate history
• Historical impacts of climate change
• History of climate change science
• History of the Gulf Stream
• History of the trade winds
• History of paleoclimatology

Climates

Climate

Climate classification

Köppen climate classification scheme symbols description table

1st	2nd	3rd
A (Tropical)	f (Rainforest) m (Monsoon) w (Savanna, dry winter) s (Savanna, dry summer)
B (Dry)	W (Arid desert) S (Semi-arid steppe)	h (Hot) k (Cold)
C (Temperate)	w (Dry winter) f (No dry season) s (Dry summer)	a (Hot summer) b (Warm summer) c (Cold summer)
D (Continental)	w (Dry winter) f (No dry season) s (Dry summer)	a (Hot summer) b (Warm summer) c (Cold summer) d (Very cold winter)
E (Polar)	T (Tundra) F (Ice cap)

• Köppen climate classification

Climate phenomena

• Climate oscillation – Examples of climate oscillations and their frequency include:
  • glacial periods of the last ice age – period around 100 000 years (see Quaternary glaciation#Astronomical cycles and 100,000-year problem)
  • North African climate cycles – tens of thousands of years
  • Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation – around 50 to 70 years, but unpredictable
  • El Niño Southern Oscillation – 2 to 7 years
  • Pacific decadal oscillation – 8 to 12 years? (not clear)
  • Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation – 15 to 30 years? (not clear)
  • Arctic oscillation – no particular periodicity
  • North Atlantic Oscillation – no particular periodicity
  • North Pacific Oscillation – ?
  • Hale cycle or sunspot cycle – about 11 years (may be discernible in climate records; see solar variation)
  • Quasi-biennial oscillation – about 30 months
• Climate change

Climate modeling

Climate model

Persons influential in climatology

List of climate scientists

• Shen Kuo
• Edmund Halley
• Benjamin Franklin
• Francis Galton
• Helmut Landsberg

See also

• Outline of meteorology

External links

• The Earth's climate – Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS – France)
• Climatology News Daily publication with news in all areas of climatology plus free news feeds for webmasters.
• Climate Prediction Center
• KNMI Climate Explorer The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute's Climate Explorer graphs climatological relationships of spatial and temporal data.
• Climatology as a Profession Amer. Inst. of Physics account of the history of the discipline of climatology in the 20th century
• Sunpreview annual and global weather project
• NOAA Weather Service