Editing Climate (section)

==Climate variability==
{{Main||Climate variability and change}}
Climate variability is the term to describe variations in the mean state and other characteristics of climate (such as chances or possibility of [[extreme weather]], etc.) "on all spatial and temporal scales beyond that of individual weather events."{{Sfn|IPCC AR5 WG1 Glossary|2013|p=1451}} Some of the variability does not appear to be caused systematically and occurs at random times. Such variability is called ''random variability'' or ''[[Noise (signal processing)|noise]]''. On the other hand, periodic variability occurs relatively regularly and in distinct modes of variability or climate patterns.{{Sfn|Rohli|Vega|2018|p=274}}

There are close correlations between Earth's climate oscillations and astronomical factors ([[barycenter]] changes, [[solar variation]], [[cosmic ray]] flux, [[cloud albedo]] [[cloud feedback|feedback]], [[Milankovic cycle]]s), and modes of [[thermodynamics|heat distribution]] between the ocean-atmosphere climate system. In some cases, current, historical and [[paleoclimate|paleoclimatological]] natural oscillations may be masked by significant [[volcanic eruption]]s, [[impact event]]s, irregularities in [[climate proxy]] data, [[positive feedback]] processes or [[Human impact on the environment|anthropogenic]] [[Greenhouse gas#Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities|emissions]] of substances such as [[greenhouse gas]]es.<ref name=Scafetta>{{cite journal|last=Scafetta|first=Nicola|title=Empirical evidence for a celestial origin of the climate oscillations|journal=Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics|date=May 15, 2010|volume=72|issue=13 |pages=951–970|doi=10.1016/j.jastp.2010.04.015|url=http://www.fel.duke.edu/~scafetta/pdf/scafetta-JSTP2.pdf|access-date=20 July 2011|author-link=Nicola Scafetta|arxiv=1005.4639|bibcode=2010JASTP..72..951S|s2cid=1626621|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610074216/http://www.fel.duke.edu/~scafetta/pdf/scafetta-JSTP2.pdf|archive-date=10 June 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Over the years, the definitions of ''climate variability'' and the related term ''[[climate change]]'' have shifted. While the term ''climate change'' now implies change that is both long-term and of human causation, in the 1960s the word climate change was used for what we now describe as climate variability, that is, climatic inconsistencies and anomalies.{{Sfn|Rohli|Vega|2018|p=274}}