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CLIMATE

CLIMATE. The average weather in an area. Major Factors: Precipitation and Temperature. Earth’s Topography: why distribution?. Earth’s Living Things: why distribution?. Climate Concepts: rise or sink. Warm air rises. Climate Concepts: rise or sink. Warm air rises

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CLIMATE

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  1. CLIMATE The average weather in an area. Major Factors: Precipitation and Temperature

  2. Earth’s Topography: why distribution?

  3. Earth’s Living Things: why distribution?

  4. Climate Concepts: rise or sink • Warm air rises

  5. Climate Concepts: rise or sink • Warm air rises • Open the oven, you feel the heat on your face

  6. Climate Concepts: rise or sink • Warm air rises • Open the oven, you feel the heat on your face • Cold air sinks

  7. Climate Concepts: rise or sink • Warm air rises • Open the oven, you feel the heat on your face • Cold air sinks • Open the freezer, you feel the cold at your feet

  8. Climate Concepts: rise or sink • When air rises, it cools • Top of Mt. Lemmon is cooler • When air sinks, it warms • Warmer here than top of Mt. Lemmon

  9. Climate Concepts: warm or cold • Warm air holds more water; cold air holds less water

  10. Climate Concepts: water in air • Absolute humidity: the amount of water in the air

  11. Climate Concepts: water in air • Absolute humidity • Relative humidity: a measurement (%) of how saturated the air is with water vapor Depends on temperature and how much water vapor is in the air

  12. Climate Concepts: water in air • As air rises, it cools • Cooler air holds less water vapor so the Relative Humidity increases. • So as air cools more and more the RH increases more and more until it hits 100%. • If it gets even cooler, then it rains

  13. Climate Concepts: water in air • The temperature to which the air had to cool to become totally saturated (100% RH) is called: • Dew point: the temperature at which the relative humidity = 100%

  14. Climate Concepts: water in air • Example: • Monday, the dew point is 50 degrees. • Tuesday, the dew point is 70 degrees. • What does this tell you? • There was more water vapor in the air on Tuesday • Thus, the chance of rain was greater on Tuesday.

  15. Climate Concepts: water in air • How do we know when the monsoon period begins? • When we experience 3 consecutive days with dew points of 55 degrees F or greater.

  16. Climate Concepts: Review • Warm air holds (more or less?) water vapor; cold air holds (more or less?) water vapor. • As air cools down, the relative humidity increases or decreases? • As air rises, the relative humidity increases or decreases?

  17. Effects of precipitation and temperature on biomes precipitation temperature

  18. What causes Precipitation? • Rain = moisture + cooled down air • No Rain = low moisture and/or heated up air

  19. Rain = moisture + cooled down air • Moisture must evaporate into air, then moist air must move over Tucson. • Winter: moves in from Pacific • Summer Monsoon: moves in from Gulf of California and Gulf of Mexico • Air must cool. • Air cools when it rises • It rises three different ways…

  20. TYPES OF PRECIPITATION 3. FRONTAL 1. CONVECTION 2. OROGRAPHIC

  21. Back to the beginning:Biomes • The two things that determine what kind of a biome exists in any place are • Precipitation: done • Temperature

  22. Climate Concepts: temperature • What determines what the temperature is on Earth? • 3 things

  23. Climate Concepts: temperature • 1. Elevation • Temperature is cooler at higher elevations • Temperature is warmer at lower elevations Low elevation High elevation Cold Hot

  24. Climate Concepts: temperature • 2. Greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere • Gases like carbon dioxide, water and others are greenhouse gases • They absorb energy, keeping us warmer at night and cooler during the day

  25. Climate Concepts: temperature • 3. latitude equator Cold Poles: same energy covers more land, and there is more atmosphere to go through which reflects/absorbs energy.

  26. Climate Concepts: temperature • 3. latitude cold equator HOT cold Cold Poles: same energy covers more land, and there is more atmosphere to go through which reflects/absorbs energy.

  27. What causes the seasons? • In other words, why is it warmer in the summer and colder in the winter?

  28. Source: Audubon Society 82o 34o Why is it warmer in the summer? • Because the sun is more directly overhead in summer (82o) vs. winter (34o). • The sun’s rays are spread over less area. • The sun’s rays don’t have to pass through as much atmosphere (which would absorb and reflect energy).

  29. Why does the sun’s angle change from season to season? 23.5°N 23.5°S Because Earth is tilted 23.5° relative to Sun and revolves around the sun. Sun’s rays Season here? Season here?

  30. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/6h.html

  31. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/6h.html

  32. North Short Sun most directly overhead East Long Sun at low angle West Long Sun at low angle How is my shadow going to change during day? Why? • Swings from west to north to east. • Longest morning and evening and shortest at noon

  33. longer 10” 104” 8’8” shorter (=5’10”/tan 34) (=5’10”/tan 82) summer winter winter summer How is my shadow going to change annually at noon each day? Gets longer and shorter. When is it long? Short? Why?

  34. So, why doesn’t it rain much in Tucson?

  35. So, why doesn’t it rain much in Tucson? • Rainshadow Effect • Descending Air in Hadley Cells • Cold Ocean Current • Distance from source of water. First 3 reasons have to do with air heating. • as air heats, its capacity to hold water increases, thus relative humidity decreases, decreasing the chance for rain and increasing potential evaporation (let’s call this sentence “the blurb”).

  36. Orographic Rain this side this side Rainshadow Effect: we are downwind of mountain ranges and as air blows down the downwind side, the air heats and the blurb happens.

  37. So, why doesn’t it rain much in Tucson? Descending Air in Hadley Cells: as air in Hadley Cells descends at 30 degrees latitude, it heats and the blurb happens. Hadley Cells

  38. So, why doesn’t it rain much in Tucson? Cold Ocean Current: as cold air over ocean moves over warm land, the air heats and the blurb happens. cold warm

  39. So, why doesn’t it rain much in Tucson? Cold currents Warm currents Cold Ocean Current continued

  40. So, why doesn’t it rain much in Tucson? Distance from source of water: All else equal, the farther from a body of water, the less moisture will be in the air.

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