The long-term records of precipitation, temperature, wind, and all other aspects of the Earth's climate. The climate, like the Earth itself, has a history extending over several billion years. Climatic changes have occurred at time scales ranging from hundreds of millions of years to centuries and decades. Processes in the atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere (snow cover, sea ice, continental ice sheets), biosphere, and lithosphere (such as plate tectonics and volcanic activity) and certain extraterrestrial factors (such as the Sun) have caused these changes of climate.