CLIMATOLOGY And It's APPLICATION - RTC, Regional Training ...

Global climate is the largest spatial scale. We are concerned with the global
scale when we refer to the climate of the globe, its hemispheres, and
differences between land and oceans. Energy input from the sun is largely
responsible for our global climate. The solar gain is defined by the orbit of
Earth around the sun and determines things like the length of seasons. The
distribution of land and ocean is another import influence on the climatic
characteristics of the Earth. Contrasting the climate of the Northern
Hemisphere, which is approximately 39% land, with the Southern Hemisphere,
which only has 19% land, demonstrates this. The yearly average temperature
of the Northern Hemisphere is approximately 15.2°C, while that of the
Southern Hemisphere is 13.3°C.
The presence of the water reduces the annual average temperature. The land
reduces the winter average temperature while increasing the average
temperature during summer. As a result, the annual amplitude of the seasonal
temperature is nearly twice as great for the Northern Hemisphere. The
Northern Hemisphere has a large variation in the monthly mean temperature.
The land absorbs and loses heat faster than the water. Over land, the heat is
distributed over a thin layer, while conduction, convection and currents mix
the energy over a fairly thick layer of water. Soil, and the air near it, therefore
follows radiation gains more closely than water. For this reason, continental
climates have a wider temperature variation