User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox

(PD) Diagram: Philippe Rekacewcz (U.S. Climate Change Science Program)
The evolution and/or cycles of various elements in Earth's atmosphere.

Atmospheric science is the umbrella term for the study of the atmosphere — the blanket of air covering the Earth.

It is a relatively new discipline that is concerned with the composition, structure and evolution of the atmosphere as well as its processes and how those processes interrelate with other systems.

The adjacent image depicts the various processes occurring in the atmosphere and how they relate to other Earth systems such as agriculture, land, sea and air transportation, other ecosystems, air pollutant emissions, the water cycle (evaporation and rainfall), forests and forest fires, deserts and desert dust, industry, etc.

To the extent that atmospheric science focuses primarily on the Earth's atmosphere, it can be regarded as a subfield of the Earth sciences, each of which is a particular synthesis of the fundamentals of physics, chemistry, fluid dynamics and thermodynamics.

What atmospheric science includes

Atmospheric science includes a number of primary subdisciplines as briefly discussed further in this section.

Meteorology

Meteorology is the study of atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric physics and weather forecasting. As of 2011, about 34 percent of atmospheric scientists in the United States are employed by the U.S. federal government, mostly in the National Weather Service. Most of the other atmospheric scientists are working as researchers in the various subdisciplines of atmospheric science.

Climatology

Climatology is the study of long and short-term climate trends (or changes) due to natural and anthropogenic causes. It is a combination of hydrology, geology, meteorology and other fields.

Paleoclimatology, a subfield of climatology, seeks to reconstruct past climates by examining records such as ice cores and tree rings. Contemporary (short-term) weather forecasting uses meteorological data accumulated over many years (e.g., records of rainfall, temperature and atmospheric composition) and models that imcorporate those data.

Global warming is a major focus of climatology and is studied to determine its causes and potential effects.

Hydrology

Hydrology is the study of the movement, characteristics and distribution of seawater, surface-water and groundwater.

The primary subfields of hydrology include:

• Chemical hydrology: the study of the chemical characteristics of water.
• Drainage basin management: water-storage in the form of reservoirs, and flood-protection.
• Ecohydrology: the study of interactions between living organisms and the hydrologic cycle.
• Hydrogeology: the study of the presence and movement of ground water.
• Hydrometeorology: the study of the transfer of water and energy between land and water body surfaces and the lower atmosphere.
• Surface hydrology: the study of hydrologic processes that operate at or near Earth's surface.
• Water quality: the study of the chemistry of water rivers and lakes including pollutants and natural solutes.

Oceanography

Oceanography is the study of the Earth's oceans. It is a sub-discipline of Earth science. Seventy percent of the earth's surface is covered by oceans and they encompass many diverse environments. Research is performed on scales ranging from small water drops to entire ocean basins.

The primary subfields of oceanography include:

• Biological oceanography (or marine biology): the study of the plants, animals and microbes of the oceans and their ecological interaction with the ocean.
• Chemical oceanography (or marine chemistry): the study of the chemistry of the ocean and its chemical interaction with the atmosphere.
• Geological oceanography (or marine geology): the study of the geology of the ocean floor including volcanology, plate tectonics, paleoceanographyand sedimentation processes.
• Physical oceanography (or marine physics): the study of the oceans' physical attributes including temperature-salinity structure, mixing, waves, tides, and currents.

There is also the field of ocean engineering which involves the design, construction, and installation of various instruments and vehicles to be used in oceanographic studies.

Air Pollution

Air pollution includes the chemicals and particulate matter introduced into the atmosphere that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damage the environment.

Aeronomy

Aeronomy is the study of the upper layer's of Earth's atmosphere

Planetary science

Planetary science is the study of planets, moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and how they were created.

As of 2011, about 34 percent of atmospheric scientists in the United States are employed by the U.S. federal government, mostly in the National Weather Service.