METEOROLOGY is the science of the atmosphere and its phenomena, including weather. Nowadays, when we speak of a "meteor," we generally mean a shooting star; but formerly this term was applied (and it still often is in technical literature) to a great variety of phenomena and appearances in the atmosphere, including clouds, rain, snow, rainbows, and so forth. That is how the science of the atmosphere came to have its present name. Meteorology is not a branch of astronomy. These two sciences are as different