Climatology

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"Climate Research" redirects here. For the journal of that name, see Climate Research (journal).

Climatology is the scientific study of the climate.

Atmospheric sciences

Atmospheric physics
Atmospheric dynamics (category)

Atmospheric chemistry (category)

Meteorology

Weather (category) · (portal)

Tropical cyclone (category)

 Climatology

Climate (category)
Climate change (category)

Global warming (category) · (portal)

Glossaries

Glossary of meteorology · Glossary of tropical cyclone

terms · Glossary of tornado terms · Glossary of climate change

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Climatology (from Greek κλίμα, klima, "place, zone"; and -λογία, -logia) or climate science is the
scientific study of climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of
time.[1] This modern field of study is regarded as a branch of the atmospheric sciences and a subfield
of physical geography, which is one of the Earth sciences. Climatology now includes aspects
of oceanography and biogeochemistry.
Basic knowledge of climate can be used within shorter term weather forecasting using analog
techniques such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO),
the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO), the Northern Annular Mode (NAM) which is also known as
the Arctic oscillation (AO), the Northern Pacific (NP) Index, the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO),
and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO).
Climate models are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the weather and
climate system to projections of future climate. Weather is known as the condition of the atmosphere
over a period of time, while climate has to do with the atmospheric condition over an extended to
indefinite period of