Global Atmospheric Circulation
Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air, and together with ocean circulation is the means by which thermal energy is redistributed on the surface of the Earth.
⇰ The Earth's weather is a consequence of its illumination by the Sun, and the laws of thermodynamics. There are differences in shortwave solar radiation received and longwave terrestrial radiation emitted for the earth at the equatorial and the polar regions (specifically, the torrid zones and the friggid zones).
⇰ The atmospheric circulation can be viewed as a heat engine driven by the Sun's energy, and whose energy sink, ultimately, is the blackness of space. The work produced by that engine causes the motion of the masses of air and in that process it redistributes the energy absorbed by the Earth's surface near the tropics to space and incidentally to the latitudes nearer the poles.
