Print
From Baede, A.P.M., E. Ahlonsou, Y. Ding, and D. Schimel, 2001: The Climate System: An Overview. In: Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Houghton, J.T., Y. Ding, D.J. Griggs, M. Noguer, P.J. van der Linden, X. Dai, K. Maskell, and C.A. Johnson, eds.). Cambridge University Press, p. 88.
The climate system is comprised of five natural components:
- the atmosphere - the envelope of gases that surrounds Earth, including the naturally occurring greenhouse gases that warm the planet’s surface
- the hydrosphere - includes all of Earth’s liquid water and gaseous water (water vapor), whereas the cryosphere includes all frozen water (ice)
- the cryosphere - technically part of the hydrosphere, but climate scientists usually treat it as a separate component of the climate system because its physical properties differ from those of water and water vapor
- the land surface - (does not include water- or ice-covered surfaces) consists of all other vegetated and non-vegetated surfaces
- the biosphere - the realm of life and is found in all of the other natural components, especially the hydrosphere and land surface. In fact, the biota is made up of and requires the presence of air, water, and mineral matter—that is, material from the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and land––to exist
Several external forces influence the five climate system components, with radiation from the sun being most important. Climate scientists consider the impact of human activities on the climate system another example of external forcing.