Our Climate
While weather is defined as the momentary status of the atmosphere, climate is understood as the typical combination of near-Earth and surface affecting atmospheric conditions and weather occurrences over extended periods in characteristic distribution of the most frequent, mean and extreme values for a location, landscape or a larger geographical area.
The climate is an atmospheric phenomenon. The atmosphere is not an isolated system, but subject to the influences of the hydrosphere (oceans, lakes, rivers and global hydrological cycle), the cryosphere (ice and snow), the biosphere (flora and fauna), the pedosphere (soil) and the lithosphere (rock).
The sun is the driving force of our climate system. The Earth partly absorbs and reflects the solar energy emitted by the Sun. The radiation reflected from the Earth's surface is partly absorbed by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere thus contributing to Earth´s warming and partly remitted into space. This natural greenhouse effect is a necessity for any development of Life on Earth.
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