Introduction to the Physics of Climate and Weather
The ever-changing dance of clouds, rain, wind, and sunshine that we experience every day is governed by the powerful and intricate laws of physics. Understanding the physics of climate and weather means diving into the forces and energy transfers that shape our environment on both local and global scales. At its core, weather and climate are driven by the uneven heating of the Earth’s surface by the Sun. Because the Earth is a sphere, sunlight hits the equator more directly than the poles, creating temperature differences that fuel atmospheric circulation. Thermodynamics, the study of heat and energy transfer, explains how warm air rises, cools, condenses into clouds, and falls back as precipitation. The principles of energy conservation and the behavior of gases under changing pressures and temperatures are central to weather patterns such as storms, winds, and temperature fronts. Fluid dynamics, another critical area of physics, describes how air and ocean currents flow across t...