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Components of the Climate System
Figure 1 illustrates, in the broadest sense, the various
components of the climate system. The physical components of the earth or
climate system are given in capital letters: atmosphere, ocean, earth,
land, ice-sheets and snow, biomass, and sea-ice, and space. The atmosphere,
with its major gases, trace gases, clouds and aerosol, is influenced from
space by radiation and from the underlying solid and liquid surface of the
earth by a variety of processes.
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