气候学是研究是地球上气候的科学。气候和天气是两个既有联系又有区别的概念。从时间尺度上讲，天气是指某一地区在某一瞬间或某一短时间内大气状态（如气温、湿度、压强等）和p气p现象（如风、云、雾、降水等）的综合。天气过程是大气中的jdfo短期过程。而气候指的是在太阳辐射、大气环流、下垫面性质和人类活动在长时间相互作用下，在某一时段内大量天气过程的综合。它不仅包括该地多年来经常发生的天气状况，而且包括某些年份偶尔出现的极端天气状况。

Climatology (from Greek κλίμα, klima, "place, zone"; and -λογία, -logia) or climate science is the study of climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time. This modern field of study is regarded as a branch of the atmospheric sciences and a subfield of physical geography, which is one of the Earth sciences. Climatology now includes aspects of oceanography and biogeochemistry. Basic knowledge of climate can be used within shorter term weather forecasting using analog techniques such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO), the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO), the Northern Annular Mode (NAM) which is also known as the Arctic oscillation (AO), the Northern Pacific (NP) Index, the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO), and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO). Climate models are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the weather and climate system to projections of future climate.