The Nature of Climate and Climatic Variations

The climate system consists of the atmosphere, the oceans, cryosphere (land ice, snow, sea ice), the lithosphere, and the biomass. The behavior of the individual components of the system is governed by processes occurring over a broad range of time and space scales. The components are coupled by physical, biological, and chemical processes, and the coupled system seems capable of undergoing fluctuations on all time scales. In addition to these "internal" climatic processes, external processes (such as variability in the solar irradiance or human activities) must also be considered. Space and time scales of climatic variability are reviewed, with emphasis on the Holocene. Regional patterns of climatic variability may be associated with changes in the amplitude and longitudinal position of the long waves in the westerlies of midlatitudes, and with changes in the intensity and latitude of meridional circulation features such as the Hadley cell. Possible examples of this are mentioned. The variance spectrum of climatic time series is described and certain implications for climate modeling are suggested.