Lecture 12: Global Climate Flashcards
What is the difference between weather and climate?
weather consists of the short-term (minutes to months) changes in the atmosphere
What elements does weather include?
temperature, humidity, pressure, clouds, precipitation and wind
_____ is the consistent, long-term behaviour of weather over time, including its variability; in contrast to weather, which is the condition of the atmosphere at any given place and time.
Climate
_____ is a climate classification that uses causative factors to determine climatic regions; for example, an analysis of the effect of interacting air masses
Genetic classification
_____ is a climate classification based on weather statistics or other data; used to determine general climate categories
Empirical classifcication
In the climate system, what distribution of factors can observed to see the influence of climate in a area?
Soils, Vegetation, Water (hydrology), Landforms (geomorphology)
What are the 6 characteristics to influence climate?
Insolation Continentality Air pressure belts Wind patterns Orographic effects Ocean currents
_____ is the exposure to the sun’s rays.
Insolation
_____ is a measure of how a climate is influenced by remoteness from oceans and maritime air masses
Continentality
______ are areas that are influenced by persistent high air pressure will have lower relative humidities and less precipitation (e.g., subtropical highs). Areas that are influenced by persistent low air pressure will have high amounts of precipitation (e.g. ITCZ).
Air pressure belts
_____ is the general circulation is controlled by the distribution of air pressure.
Wind patterns
____ is the change in atmospheric conditions caused by change in elevation
orographic effect
______ is the pattern of warm and cold currents that can influence temperature and precipitation on adjacent land areas.
Ocean currents
_____ is a wet area generally within 10 degrees of the equator.
Wet equatorial belt
What influences the wet equatorial belt?
Area is influenced by
mE air masses, and has high amounts of precipitation
What are the high amount of precipitation caused by in the wet equatorial belt?
Proximity to the ITCZ air pressure belt and a predominance of ME air masses.
______ are moist windward tropical coasts (between 5 and 25 degrees N and S) where the flow of air is east to west (trade winds) bringing mT air masses onto the land areas (e.g.
SE Brazil).
Trade Wind Coasts
____ happen in many tropical regions and have a pronounced we t season and dry season.
Tropical Wet and Dry (monsoon and savanna region)
In tropical wet and dry seasons, ______ areas corresponds with the summer period when the migration of the
ITCZ pressure belt brings in mT and mE air masses.
wet
In _______ areas such as northern India, low pressure tends to develop over land areas in summer and the prevailing winds bring mT air masses onshore with much precipitation.
Monsoon
There are two zones of _______ centred on the tropics Cancer and Capricorn (e.g.
north Africa, western Australia)
Tropical desserts
What influences tropical deserts?
the subtropical High pressure belt and also in some areas continental air (cT).
______ are dry regions in the mid latitudes (e.g. central Asia).
Mid Latitude Deserts (Steppe)
What causes mid latitude desert?
Interiors of
continents (cT, cP air masses) where dryness is largely a function of continentality, although in some areas they are in the rain shadows of large mountain belts.
______ are e interiors and coasts of the SE sides of continents mainly between 25 and 45
degrees N and S.
Moist subtropical
What influences moist subtropical regions?
By mT air masses moving ashore along the west sides of persistent anticyclones (high pressure systems). Include SE US, SE Australia.
_______ are influenced by the westerlies wind
belt and are influenced by mP air masses brought to the land areas by the westerly winds (e.g. coastal BC and Alaska). In some areas the precipitation amounts are enhanced by
orographic effects.
Midlatitude west coast
______ are dominated by high air pressure and cold dense air masses with very low equilibrium vapour pressures (cA, cP), thus very little precipitation.
Arctic and polar deserts
