in meteorology, what is the source of energy that drives atmospheres?
370797
The Sun.\n\nEDIT: Yes, what other people have said about the Earth's tilt and whatnot are true in that they affect the atmosphere, but you asked for the source of energy. That is solely the Sun.
980589
The sun is the source of energy. Plants are next. Then herbivores or plant eaters. Then comes the carnivores that catch and eat the herbivores. Finally are the decomposers
297924
It's "trade winds".\nIt's the wind created by the movement of air from north or south towards the equator.
890409
That it has an atmosphere that retains the sun's energy.
523588
Pr0n.\n\n\nSeriously, the heat is generated from the oxidation (burning) of fuel (mostly glucose) within the cells (mitochondria).  Just as oxidation of gasoline creates heat & energy, so does the controlled, catalytic (enzymatic) oxidation of sugar - it's what we live on!!
231640
energy from the cosmos.\nall energy eminated from that first creation\nthe "in the beginning" creation or for moderns the "big bang "energy.\nIt is the energy still eminating from our cosmos
569016
Warm ocean water and warm air over the ocean are the source of a hurricane's energy. The warmer the water the stronger a hurricane can be. The water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting much warmer in the last few years, and Hurricane Katrina and the others last summer were a result of that.
453537
There are in fact many different atmospheric layers as you move upward away from the earth. However, there are NOT different layers of gases. All the gases are sort of mixed.\n\nThe troposphere, the atmospheric layer that we live in, contains the most gases. This is due to gravity. Anything that has mass will be attracted to earth's gravity.\n\nThat is why when you move away from the earth there is less air. Less gravity = less air!\n\nThe higher you go in the troposphere, the colder it gets. That is also due to less air (holds heat).\n\nThe next layer up is the stratosphere. This layer is where most jets fly & where the atmospheric ozone layer exists.\n\nTemperatures in the stratosphere will get warmer due to the ozone layer. Ozone is an insulator & traps heat.\n\nAs you move higher, you will reach the mesosphere. And, as you may have already guessed, this layer contains even less air. It also gets pretty darn cold as you move away from the ozone layer. "Shooting stars" occur in this layer. Meteorites burn up as they enter our atmosphere.\n\nThe last layer is called the thermosphere. It has the least amount of air. But the odd thing is that this is the hottest layer!!!\n\nSounds strange??? Well here is why...\n\nAlthough there is less air to hold heat, there is still some present. Mind you, it is few & far between. Imagine being in the Astrodome & someone across the field threw a BB at you! That is how sparse the air particles are.\n\nHowever, we have said there is air! That air that is present is constantly bombarded with nasty cosmic rays! By this time, here is so much energy in the air particles that the temperature is astronomical (no pun intended).\n\nBecause of this, the thermosphere is often called the "heat sphere", just as it's name implies.\n\nSatellites are put into orbit in the thermosphere.\n\nTo get directly to your question... there are different layers because scientists decided to name them according to temperature changes.
237929
You take lots of measurements of wind velocity, temperature and barometric pressure at many grid points, each of which defines a "cell" (a small volume of air -- small compared to the size of the hurricane, that is). From pressure and temperature you can estimate density of each cell, and from the cell volume, the cell's mass. Kinetic energy = 0.5*M*V^2.  Compute for each cell and add 'em up.
865423
Weather is caused by so many different things. to name a few. atmospheric pressure, ocean currents, air temperature, solar output. i sugest you do some research online
133982
The Sun produces energy through a process called "nuclear fusion." This is the same process that happens in a hydrogen bomb. The Sun converts hydrogen into helium, and that conversion process releases energy, mostly in the form of heat. The Sun "burns" about 600-million tons of hydrogen every second.
749020
Wind is the roughly horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by uneven heating of the Earth's surface. It occurs at all scales, from local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting tens of minutes to global winds resulting from solar heating of the Earth. The two major influences on the atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and the rotation of the planet (Coriolis effect).\n\nGiven a difference in barometric pressure between two air masses, a wind will arise between the two which tends to flow from the area of high pressure to the area of low pressure until the two air masses are at the same pressure, although these flows will be modified by the Coriolis effect in the extratropics.\n\nWinds can be classified either by their scale, the kinds of forces which cause them (according to the atmospheric equations of motion), or the geographic regions in which they exist. There are global winds, such as the wind belts which exist between the atmospheric circulation cells. There are upper-level winds, such as the jet streams. There are synoptic-scale winds that result from pressure differences in surface air masses in the middle latitudes, and there are winds that come about as a consequence of geographic features such as the sea breeze. Mesoscale winds are those which act on a local scale, such as gust fronts. At the smallest scale are the microscale winds which blow on a scale of only tens to hundreds of metres and are essentially unpredictable, such as dust devils and microbursts.\n\nWinds can also shape landforms, via a variety of eolian processes.
526314
Weather is an all-encompassing term used to describe all of the many and varied phenomena that can occur in the atmosphere of a planet. The term is normally taken to mean the activity of these phenomena over short periods of time, usually no more than a few days in length. Average atmospheric conditions over significantly longer periods are known as climate. Usage of the two terms often overlaps and the concepts are obviously very closely related.
948487
air naturally comes from high pressure fronts to low pressure fronts\n\nalso if you look at weather maps those wierd looking squiggly lines \nthe closer together they are the higher wind speed you'll have
884328
Wind-driven currents, like any type of currents, transport heat energy in the oceans.
380970
Hurricanes are intense low pressure  areas that form over warm ocean waters in the summer and early fall. Their source of energy is water vapor  which is evaporated from the ocean surface. Water vapor is the "fuel" for the hurricanes because it releases the "latent heat of condensation" when it condenses to form clouds and rain, warming the surrounding air. (This heat energy was absorbed by the water vapor when it was evaporated from the warm ocean surface, cooling the ocean in the process.) Usually, the heat released in this way in tropical thunderstorms is carried away by wind shear, which blows the top off the thunderstorms. But when there is little wind shear, this heat can build up, causing low pressure to form. The low pressure causes wind to begin to spiral inward toward the center of the low. These winds help to evaporate even more water vapor from the ocean, spiraling inward toward the center, feeding more showers and thunderstorms, and warming the upper atmosphere still more. The showers and thunderstorms where all of this energy is released are usually organized into bands (sometimes called "rainbands" or "feeder bands"), as well as into an "eyewall" encircling the center of the storm. The eyewall is where the strongest winds occur, which encircle the warmest air, in the eye of the hurricane. This warmth in the eye is produced by sinking air, which sinks in response to rising air in the thunderstorms. The winds diminish rapidly moving from the eyewall to the inside of the relatively cloud-free eye, where calm winds can exist.\nhurricane eyes seen from the Space Shuttle and from aircraft\nHurricane intensity is based upon the highest sustained (1 minute average) wind speed the hurricane is producing. The "Saffir-Simpson" scale rates hurricane strength in this way from Category 1 to Category 5. These categories were chosen based upon the amount of damage that each category can produce.\nIntensity Wind Speed Damage\nCategory 1 74- 95 mph MINIMAL: tree branches, shrubs, unanchored mobile homes\nCategory 2 96-110 mph MODERATE: mobile homes, poorly constructed buildings, some trees down\nCategory 3 111-130 mph EXTENSIVE: small buildings damaged, large trees down, mobile homes destroyed\nCategory 4 131-155 mph EXTREME: outer walls damaged, roof failure on small buildings, extensive damage to doors and windows, mobile homes destroyed\nCategory 5 >155 mph CATASTROPHIC: complete roof failure on many buildings, some buildings destroyed, severe window and door damage, mobile homes destroyed\nIn low-lying areas, much of the damage from hurricanes can be from the "storm surge", in which water being blown onshore by the high winds rises rapidly. The storm surge can destroy the lower floors of some buildings, or even destroy the foundations of residences causing the homes to wash away. The storm surge can also trap residents from evacuating along low-lying escape routes.\n\nHurricanes almost always travel poleward at the end of their life cycle, helping to transport excess heat out of the tropics toward higher latitudes. They gradually die as they move over cooler waters, which do not have the heat energy necessary to evaporate sufficent water vapor into the atmosphere to fuel the hurricane. If the hurricane crosses over to land, the heat source is removed entirely. With the removal of the energy source, and the greater surface friction of the land's terrain and vegetation, the hurricane's winds rapidly decrease.
929539
wind is caused by the movement of air from regions of high atmospheric pressure to regions of low atmospheric pressure.  high pressure is caused by the cooling of air: as air cools, it shrinks and becomes more dense and its pressure therefore increases.  low  pressure is caused by the heating of air: as air warms, it expands and becomes less dense and its pressure therefore decreases.\nrain is caused by the rising of columns of air: when a bubble of air is warmer than its surroundings, it expands and becomes less dense.  this less dense air rises, and as it rises, it gets cooler.  as it cools, it becomes less able to hold moisture.  eventually, you reach a point at which the air can no longer get any cooler without having to lose some moisture.  it is at this point that clouds and rain start to form.\nyou get storms if you have the right combination or rain, wind, air pressure, humidity, and clouds.