Climatology is the scientific discipline within the atmospheric sciences that investigates the statistical behavior, physical processes, and dynamics of the climate system over periods from decades to millennia. It analyzes long-term patterns and variability of atmospheric variables such as temperature, precipitation, radiation, and circulation, and their coupling with oceans, cryosphere, land surface, and biosphere. Climatology employs observational datasets, reanalyses, paleoclimate proxies, and numerical climate models to quantify mean states, extremes, teleconnections, and feedbacks, and to attribute observed changes to internal variability and external forcings, including solar, volcanic, and anthropogenic influences.
Solar radiation warms and illuminates our planet. It is the primary driver behind the movement of clouds and wind, helps keep us warm, and governs activity through daily and seasonal cycles. However, over the past 30 years, ...
Environment
Feb 17, 2026
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You may not have noticed, but that endless snowpack has developed a slow leak—in this case, historically slow. Its endurance continues to climb the charts among the snowpacks of yesteryear—and in at least one way may well ...
Environment
Feb 16, 2026
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78
Beginning two summers ago in a building lacking reliable power and internet, dozens of teenagers in Bo City, Sierra Leone watched videos about climate science, then discussed opportunities to build resilience in one of the ...
Environment
Feb 16, 2026
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Deforestation in the Amazon is causing significant regional changes in climate compared to areas with forest cover above 80%. The loss of vegetation leads to an increase in surface temperature, a decrease in evapotranspiration, ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 16, 2026
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The Japanese priest and his parishioners gathered before dawn, hoping that climate change had not robbed them of the chance to experience an increasingly rare communion with the sacred.
Environment
Feb 15, 2026
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Researchers from the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, have developed a high-resolution daily atmospheric ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 12, 2026
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Current global climate models (GCMs) support with high confidence the view that rising greenhouse gases and other anthropogenic forcings account for nearly all observed global surface warming—slightly above 1 °C—since the ...
Two next-generation satellite missions announced Thursday will help NASA better understand Earth and improve capabilities to foresee environmental events and mitigate disasters.
Space Exploration
Feb 10, 2026
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24
They're all around us: sensors and satellites, radars and drones. These tools form vast remote sensing networks that collect data on the climate, the ground, the air, and the water. This information is immensely useful for ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 10, 2026
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About a year ago, researchers at the University of Michigan found that the extratropical cyclones that are the biggest drivers of winter weather in the Great Lakes region are warming and trending northward. That means, outside ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 9, 2026
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