Each day we experience the weather around us: the current temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind, and cloud cover.

Weather is an important determinant of our behavior: what we wear, the activities we engage in, and our mode of transportation. Climate is the long-term description of weather at a given location, based on averages and variation measured over decades.

Climate variation includes the daily and seasonal cycles associated with changes in solar radiation as Earth rotates on its axis and orbits the sun. Climate variation also includes changes over years or decades, such as large-scale cyclic weather patterns related to changes in the atmosphere and oceans (El Nino Southern Oscillation, discussed later in this chapter, is one example). Longer-term climate change occurs as a result of changes in the intensity and distribution of solar radiation reaching Earth's surface, as well as changes in the overall energy balance. Earth's climate is currently changing because of increases in concentrations of gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide that are emitted into the atmosphere as a result of human activities. These gases absorb energy and radiate it back to the surface, creating a greenhouse effect.

More on the topic Each day we experience the weather around us: the current temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind, and cloud cover.:

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