Unit 6: Meteorology

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Unit 6 Meteorology

• Topics
• 1. Climate Factors
• 2. Greenhouse Effect

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What are the Climate Factors

• Latitude
• Elevation
• Mountain Ranges
• Prevailing winds
• Ocean Currents
• Distance from water

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Latitude

• As latitude increases the angle of insolation
  decreases cooler (Relationship???)
• Higher the Latitude
• Extreme temperature change
• Closer to equator warm and balanced
  temperatures

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Elevation

• As you increase in altitude above sea level, the
  temperatures of the area tend to decrease.
• Seasons Remain Cooler

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Distance from Water

• Water has the highest specific heat, which means
  that it takes more energy to heat up cm3 water
  than anything else on the earths surface
• Therefore, water is a poor absorber of
  electromagnetic energy and a poor radiator of
  energy (warms and cools slowly)

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Climate Factors Coastal vs. Continental Cities

• What effect does a large body of water have on a
  nearby cities annual climate?

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What does this have to do with Climate?

• Water has a high specific heat
• Takes more energy to warm up water
• Warms up slowly, and cools slowly
• Land has a low specific heat
• Takes less energy to warm up land
• Warms up quickly and cools quickly

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Living Inland
Land heats up very quickly and cools very quickly

• Summer
• Very hot as land cools quickly
• Winter
• Very cold as land cools quickly

SOUTH DAKTOA
SOUTH DAKTOA
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Question

• How does the ocean affect the cities that are on
  the coast?
• The breezes (winds) help moderate the annual
  temperatures of the city

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Ocean Breezes

• There is almost always a breeze on the coast
  which moderates climate
• Either blows in from the ocean (sea- breeze)
• OR out from the land (land breeze)

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Recap

• Winds are created when there are differences in
  air pressure from one area to another.
  (University of Illinois, 2004)
• Warmer areas have LOW pressure
• Cooler areas have HIGH pressure
• Winds Move from High to Low Pressure

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Daytime Sea Breeze
(Swinhoe, 2005)
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Nighttime Land Breeze
(Swinhoe, 2005)
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Watch the animation.
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Coastal Climate

• Due to the ocean water heating slowly and cooling
  slowly
• AND the constant breeze
• Annual Temperatures are moderated
• Cooler summers, but warmer winters

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Mountain Ranges

• On the west coast you will notice that there is a
  border between moist climates and dry climates
• What separates them is mountain ranges
• Air moves from west to east in North America and
  we find that the west side is moist and the east
  side is dry

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Windward versus Leeward
Moist air rises, cools and expands into clouds,
then rains
Dry air descends, contracts, warms deserts
OCEAN
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Ocean Currents and Planetary Winds

• The ocean currents are driven by the planetary
  winds
• The Coriolis Effect occurs do to the rotation of
  the Earth
• Winds want to travel in straight lines, but,
  because the Earth is rotating (spinning the winds
  are deflected

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The Coriolis Effect
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Ocean Currents

• Warm currents move north on the East side of
  continents (N.H.) and cool currents move south on
  the west side of continents (N. Hemisphere)

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Prevailing Winds

• The prevailing winds are caused by the rotation
  of the Earth and create planetary convection
  cells
• Therefore we are going to find certain latitudes
  that have consistent moist or dry climates
• This is in the Reference Tablewhat page?

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Global circulation

• Near the equator warm, moist air rises, cools and
  rains, then falls near 30 degrees which is dry
  (desert like)
• Therefore - 30 high and 0 Low pressure

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Planetary winds and circulation

• You will see then
• 0 and 60 degrees rising moist air (low pressure
  and moist)
• 30 and 90 degrees falling air (high pressure
  and dry)

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Greenhouse Effect

• There is a difference between the localized
  greenhouse effect and the global greenhouse
  effect
• The local depends on cloud cover
• The global depends on carbon dioxide and water
  vapor

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Global Greenhouse

• UV rays (short)from the sun penetrate the
  atmosphere
• re-radiated as infrared (long) and can not get
  back out
• They are absorbed by carbon dioxide and water
  vapor

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The localized greenhouse

• Occurs when there is a clear day that allows a
  lot of solar absorption
• Clouds roll in at night and act as a blanket
• When the terrestrial radiation is given off in
  the form of infrared energy, it is absorbed by
  the clouds or bounced back to the earth keeping
  it warm