Understanding Our Environment
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Transcript Understanding Our Environment
Air, Weather, and Climate
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Earth’s Atmosphere
Compared to the size of the Earth (12000 km),
the atmosphere is a thin shell (120 km)
Composed of:
– ~78% N2 gas
– 21% O2 gas
– 1% argon gas and other permanent gases
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If the Earth is
compared to
this Orange…
the Earth’s
atmosphere
would be
thinner than
the layer of
pesticide on
this Orange’s
surface
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Layers of the Atmosphere
Troposphere
Stratosphere
Mesosphere
Thermosphere
Ionosphere
Exosphere
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Troposphere
Closest to the earth’s surface
Where we live
– Weather occurs here
very thin (averaging 11 km or 7 miles high)
Densest layer
– Most of nitrogen, oxygen and water vapor here
Temp decreases as altitude increases
5
Stratosphere
Above the troposphere
extends to 50 kilometers (31 miles) high
dry and less dense
UV rays reach higher altitudes and warm them
Ozone layer
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Mesosphere
extends to 85 kilometers (53 miles) high
temperature decrease with altitude reaching
-90°C at the top
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Thermosphere
extends to 600 kilometers (372 miles) high
temperatures go up as altitude increases due to
absorption of solar radiation by oxygen
molecules so few and far between that they
collide rarely
Farthest away from earth’s surface
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Ionosphere
Within the thermosphere
Contains ions when hit by solar energy begin to
glow and produce light
– Aurora Borealis
reflects many types of radio waves allowing
them to bounce around the world
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Exosphere
Top of the thermosphere and continues until it
merges with interplanetary gases, or space (372
to 6200 miles)
10
Seasonal Changes
Occurs due to
earth’s axis being
tilted
Creates opposite
seasons
Factor that
determines global
air circulation
patterns
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Seasons
Seasons are short periods
of climatic change.
Certain areas receive
changing amounts of
radiation throughout the
year
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Earth’s Seasons
SUMMER (Northern Hemisphere)
WINTER (Southern Hemisphere)
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Earth’s Seasons Continued….
Tilt of the Earth’s axis towards or away from the sun creates the seasons
WINTER (Northern Hemisphere)
SUMMER (Southern Hemisphere)
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Weather
Weather – daily temperature and moisture
conditions in a place
– driven by atmosphere
– atmospheric conditions over short time periods (hours
or days) in small geographic areas
– produced by interacting air masses
– Types of weather
Warm Front-warm air displaces cool air
Cold Front-cooler air displaces warmer air
Severe-hurricanes, thunderstorms, tornadoes
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Weather
Contribute to Weather
–
–
–
–
–
–
Air temperature
Air pressure
Humidity
Cloud cover
Precipitation
Winds
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Air Temperature
As solar energy reaches the equator, regions heat
up more than the poles.
Warm air and water at the equator travel toward
the poles while cold air and water at the poles
travel toward the equator in an attempt to
equalize the temperature
– Constant struggle = changing weather
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http://www.usatoday.com/weather/tg/wglobale/wglobale.htm
Air Pressure
Caused by the weight of air pressing down on the Earth
High pressure-cool, dense air that descends towards
surface of earth
– Fair weather
Low pressure-less dense warm air goes toward the
center of a low pressure air mass
– Produces cloudy and stormy weather
Air pressure changes with weather
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Humidity and Cloud Cover
Relative humidity-amount of water vapor in the air
Cloud Cover
– clouds cool the planet by reflecting sunlight
Albedo
– reduces the amount of heat that radiates into space
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Winds
Speed is determined by differences in pressure
Coriolis effect
– Deflection of objects moving in a straight path
relative to the earth’s surface
– Proportional to the speed of the earth’s rotation at
different latitudes
as latitude increases and the speed of the earth’s rotation
decreases, Coriolis effect increases
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Winds cont.
Hadley cells
– Solar energy warms humid air in tropics
– Warm air rises, cools, condenses and precipitates
– Dry air sinks and is warmed
Hot dry air causes deserts
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Convection Currents
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Climate
Climate – long term weather patterns
– driven by atmosphere
– determines distribution of biomes across Earth
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What Factors Control Climate?
Latitude
Elevation/topography
Nearby water
Uneven heating of earth’s surface
Ocean currents
Vegetation
Prevailing winds
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Ocean Currents
Warm/cold currents influence land climate
Currents redistribute heat from sun which influences climate
– Gulf Stream current
Upwelling-occurs along the west coasts of most continents
– Cold, nutrient filled water
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le
Warm phase of ENSO
El Nino – trade winds near SA weaken; allows warm equatorial water
from the western Pacific to move eastward toward the west coast of
SA
– Suppresses upwelling; decreases productivity
– Alters weather
Cooler, wetter conditions in the se US
Cold phase of ENSO
La Nina
– Trade winds strengthen
– Upwelling of nutrient rich waters
– Alters weather
Drier conditions in the se US
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“Natural” Greenhouse Effect
Solar radiation passes through the atmosphere.
– ~51% of the sun's radiation reaches the surface
This energy is then used in number of processes including:
–
–
–
–
heating of the ground surface
melting of ice and snow
evaporation of water
plant photosynthesis
– ~30% is reflected back to space by clouds and the surface
– ~19% of the energy available is absorbed by clouds and gases
absorb and reradiate this outgoing radiation, storing some of the heat
in the atmosphere, thus producing a net warming of the surface
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“Natural” Greenhouse Effect cont.
Kept the Earth's temperature about 60° F
warmer than it would otherwise be.
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