Learning Objectives
- Understand the composition and structure of the atmosphere, including the roles of gases, water vapour, and dust particles, and the characteristics of atmospheric layers such as the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere.
- Analyze the heat budget and temperature distribution of the Earth, focusing on processes like insolation, conduction, convection, terrestrial radiation, and advection, and the factors influencing temperature distribution and inversion.
- Examine atmospheric pressure and wind systems, including global pressure belts, planetary, seasonal, and local winds, and the dynamics of air masses, fronts, and cyclones.
- Understand precipitation and hydrometeorological processes, including evaporation, condensation, and the formation of dew, frost, fog, mist, and clouds, as well as the types and distribution of rainfall globally.
- Study climate classification and change, focusing on global climate classification systems such as Koeppen's, and the impacts of the greenhouse effect, global warming, and climate change on Earth's systems.