Atmosphere III is our present atmosphere dominated by nitrogen and oxygen. The Earth turns on its axis once every 24 hours. This turning introduces serious complexity into the behavior of the atmosphere. Jet streams serve as steering mechanisms for storms and influences their frequency of occurrence and their intensity. However, the importance of water goes far beyond its role in making climate visually appealing.
Water plays an important role in redistributing energy.
The contrast between oceans and continents may be the most evident because of the very different ways these surfaces respond to the solar energy that strikes them. To understand climate, we must first have some sense of the nature of the influence of these five factors. Our goal in this course is to provide an overview of these factors sufficient to permit us to focus the majority of our attention on the characteristics of climate. The Atmosphere A. Composition 1. Composition of the atmosphere at the earth s surface is shown in Table 1.1.