SUMMARY As you now know, meteorology is a complex but fascinating subject to learn about. There have been some scientific principles you needed to know as basic skills; hopefully, however, these have been applied to more practical topics, like why we have rainbows, how tornadoes and blizzards develop, and why we need to worry about global warming. The first chapter of the course talked about the earth's atmosphere, starting with what it once looked like and how it has evolved over time. We talked about what's in the atmosphere and the air we breathe in today's time as well as the different layers of the atmosphere from the earth's surface to outer space. We also discussed air pressure and air density as important baseline information you needed to understand meteorology. At the end of the chapter, you should have gotten an understanding of the physical space where our weather originates. Chapter two looked at how the earth and our atmosphere are warmed and cooled. You learned how the sun plays a big role in how this planet stays warm but that there is more to it than that. We talked about how heat gets transferred in the atmosphere, why we have seasonal and other variations in temperature, what the solstices and equinoxes are all about, and what we mean by "the greenhouse effect". There is a great deal of talk about this effect on our planet, but, as you hopefully learned, it is not a new phenomenon and is not an altogether bad thing for a planet to have in moderation. Finally, you understood the greenhouse gases and why they are called by this name. In chapter three, you looked at the concept of temperature, including how to predict what a nighttime temperature will be. Diurnal variation is the temperature variation you see from night to day. This variation will depend on several factors, such as vegetation, cloud cover, and humidity. You also studied temperature variations on earth, which depend on altitude, latitude, and many local factors. Chapter four in the course was essentially the study of hydrology or water in the environment. Besides the temperature, you usually want to know what if any
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