Sources & Definitions

Question 1

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

Answer 1

The IPCC is the international body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC was set up in 1988 to provide information on the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.

Question 2

Climate:

Answer 2

Average state of the atmosphere for a given time scale and for a specified geographical region. Described by average-state statistics (e.g. mean, variance) of climate variables over a long time. Relevant variables include pressure, precipitation, temperature, humidity, radiation, etc.

Question 3

Weather vs. Climate:

Answer 3

It is important to identify the difference between weather and climate. Weather involves the description of the atmospheric condition at a single instant of time for a single occurrence.

In general, climate may be thought of as an average of weather conditions over a period of time including the probability for distributions from this average.

Question 4

Climate change:

Answer 4

 Climate change is defined here as the change in climate, attributed directly or indirectly to human activity which, in addition to natural climate variability, is observed over comparable time periods

 Climate changes if the statistical distributions of weather pattern change for different time and space scales.

Question 5

Climate system, composed of 5 components

Answer 5

(a) Atmosphere,
(b) Ocean,
(c) Land surface,
(d) Ice and snow surfaces and
(e) Biosphere, where the latter four interact with the atmosphere and determine the climate of the atmosphere.