The Climate Mosaic:: Understanding the Hidden Patterns of Clouds, Winds, and Weather

Our day-to-day experience with the weather could lead us to believe that wind is unpredictable and chaotic. However, when considered on the global scale, the atmosphere exhibits a well-defined pattern. This pattern plays a key role in the climate system, transporting energy and water across latitudes, preventing the poles from becoming too cold and the equatorial regions from becoming too warm. This lecture addresses key features of this circulation and how they relate to weather around the globe.