We describe weather with quantities like temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, percipitation and wind velocity. Climate refers to the average weather characteristics in a given region. Climate is an average that describes the expected conditions on time scales of years or centuries. The World's climate is classified using the Koppen classification scheme. The atmosphere transfers heat via convection, or the motion of mass.
Hot material rises, while cold gases sink.
However, this minor component plays an extremely important role in cycling water around the globe. The atmosphere has a layered structure that is based on temperature and composition. The lowermost layer is called the tropospher . If the Earth was not spinning, then the atmospheric circulation would look like the figure below. The fact that the Earth is rotating adds a very significant complication to the atmospheric circulation.