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Weather and Cl imate   Energy from the Sun   drives the world , s   weather systems.

 The energy in a beam of

Only a tiny fraction of the energy the Sun pours out into space—about one part in 2,000 million—reaches the Earth. This energy produces the general conditions of the air around us that we call the weather. The most important feature of the weather is the temperature. This depends mainly on the amount of energy the Sun’s rays provide. They heat up the Earth’s surface, which in turn heats up the air above it. When the air warms, it rises. This sets up currents in the atmosphere known as winds.

sunlight spreads over a small area

at the Equator, but over a bigger area elsewhere. This is why the Equator is warmer than elsewhere.

 Astronauts photographed this huge weather system above the Atlantic. It was a hurricane named Bonnie.

From National Geographic, a primer on how the Solar System is arranged.

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