Atmospheric science is a broad field which encompasses every aspect of our atmosphere including the various effects of atmosphere on different systems and vice versa. The field of meteorology also deals with the study of atmospheric physics as well as atmospheric chemistry while primarily focusing upon weather forecasting. Atmospheric changes are also studied within the field of climatology which determines the mean climate over time caused by the anthropogenic as well as natural climatic variables. The discipline of atmospheric sciences has also been extended to planetary sciences which specifically deal with the study of atmospheres of all planets within the solar systems. The study if theories and unique observations pertaining to motion systems having meteorological significance are termed under atmospheric dynamics. Such motion systems include the diverse processes of tornadoes, thunderstorms, tropical and extratropical cyclones, gravity waves and also jet streams. The aim of studying these phenomena from a dynamical aspect is to study them applying the basics of physics.

Atmospheric physics another sub-field of atmospheric sciences in which atmospherics physicists try to model the Earth’s atmosphere with the atmospheres of other planets via the application of physics fundamentals such as fluid flow equations, radiation balancing, chemical models. The goal of dividing atmospheric sciences into sub-disciplines is to develop more successful methods of predicting interannual as well as seasonal climatic fluctuations and also to achieve a better understanding of global climatic disturbances due to human activities such as increased atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide or similarly due to depletion of the ozone layer.