Climate variability is the way aspects of climate (such as temperature and precipitation) differ from an average. Climate variability occurs due to natural and sometimes periodic changes in the circulation of the air and ocean, volcanic eruptions, and other factors.
What is meant by natural variability?
Natural variability is a quality control related concept. All manufacturing or service exhibit a certain amount of “natural” variability. (Such variability is also known as chance or random variation.) This natural variability is the cumulative effect of several minor factors.
What is the meaning of climate variability?
Climate variability is the way aspects of climate (such as temperature and precipitation) differ from an average. Climate variability occurs due to natural and sometimes periodic changes in the circulation of the air and ocean, volcanic eruptions, and other factors.
What are examples of climate variability?
A prominent aspect of our climate is its variability. This variability ranges over many time and space scales and includes phenomena such as El Niño/La Niña, droughts, multi-year, multi-decade, and even multi-century changes in temperature and precipitation patterns.
What are the causes of climate variability?
These include: Natural changes in the Earth's orbit which may occur over time scales of thousands of years. Natural changes in the sun which affect the amount of incoming solar radiation. Natural, large-scale volcanic eruptions which eject large amounts of ash into the atmosphere.
What are the effects of climate variability?
Impacts. Humans and wild animals face new challenges for survival because of climate change. More frequent and intense drought, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans can directly harm animals, destroy the places they live, and wreak havoc on people's livelihoods and communities.
What does natural variability mean?
Natural climate variability refers to the variation in climate parameters caused by nonhuman forces. There are two types of natural variability: those external and internal to the climate system. In any given year, natural variability may cause the climate to be different than its long-term average.
What does natural variation mean in statistics?
Natural process variation, sometimes just called process variation, is the statistical description of natural fluctuations in process outputs.
Is climate change a natural variation?
Variations in the Earth's climate over time are caused by natural internal processes, such as El Niño, as well as changes in external influences.
What is causing anthropogenic climate change?
The Theory of Anthropogenic Climate Change is that humans are causing most of the current changes to climate by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas.
Why is anthropogenic climate change important?
The anthropogenic increase in the greenhouse effect in particular helps explain Earth's warming since roughly 1970, during a time when the major natural drivers of climate change have favored a slight cooling.