Weather - Basic mechanism

Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary Textbooks from Wikibooks Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Images and media from Commons News stories from Wikinews Weather is an all-encompassing term used to describe all of the many and varied phenomena that can occur in the atmosphere of a planet. The term is normally taken to mean the activity of these phenomena over short periods of time, usually no more than a few days in length. Avera ...

Including:

• Weather - Basic mechanism
• Weather - Terrestrial weather
• Weather - Shaping the Planet
• Weather - Human History
• Weather - In the Future
• Weather - Extra-terrestrial weather
• Weather - Extra-planetary weather

Read more here: » Weather: Encyclopedia - Weather

Weather is driven by the different amounts of energy received from the Sun on different parts of the planet. Because of a planet's curvature, sunlight is incident at different angles at different latitudes (higher latitude -> lower angle of incidence -> less heating). Different types of surface (e.g. ocean, forest, ice) have different properties of reflectivity (albedo) and absorb differing amounts of energy. It is mainly due to these two factors that ...

See also:

Weather, Weather - Basic mechanism, Weather - Terrestrial weather, Weather - Shaping the Planet, Weather - Human History, Weather - In the Future, Weather - Extra-terrestrial weather, Weather - Extra-planetary weather

Read more here: » Weather: Encyclopedia II - Weather - Basic mechanism

On Earth, regularly occuring weather phenomena include such things as wind, cloud, rain, snow, fog and dust storms. Less common events include natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes and ice storms. Almost all recognised weather phenomena on Earth occur in the troposphere (the lower part of the atmosphere). Weather does occur in the stratosphere and does affect weather lower down in the troposphere, but ...

See also:

Weather, Weather - Basic mechanism, Weather - Terrestrial weather, Weather - Shaping the Planet, Weather - Human History, Weather - In the Future, Weather - Extra-terrestrial weather, Weather - Extra-planetary weather

Read more here: » Weather: Encyclopedia II - Weather - Terrestrial weather

Weather phenomena and systems on other planets are thought to be similar to those on Earth, but often occur on a much bigger scale or involve different substances to those familiar to Earth dwellers. The Cassini-Huygens mission to Titan, for example, discovered clouds formed from methane or ethane which deposit rain composed of liquid methane and other organic compounds. Extra-terrestrial weather systems can be extremely stable; one of the most famous landmarks in the solar system, Jupiter's Great Red Spot is an anticyclonic st ...

See also:

Weather, Weather - Basic mechanism, Weather - Terrestrial weather, Weather - Shaping the Planet, Weather - Human History, Weather - In the Future, Weather - Extra-terrestrial weather, Weather - Extra-planetary weather

Read more here: » Weather: Encyclopedia II - Weather - Extra-terrestrial weather