global winds

Global Winds

Michael J. GarayJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of

TechnologyPasadena, California, USA

http://geography.sierra.cc.ca.us/Booth/California/2_atmosphere/Hadley_cells.jpg

How to teach this?


National Science Education Standards

• Earth Science– Energy in the Earth system

• Heating of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere by the sun drives convection within the atmosphere and ocean, producing winds and ocean currents (9-12)

• Global winds are part of a pattern of air circulation across the Earth and include the trade winds, westerlies and the polar easterlies

http://www.universetoday.com/74036/what-are-the-steps-of-the-scientific-method/

The “Scientific Method”

Three Approaches• Factual

– These are “facts” that students should know

• Historical– Science (i.e., learning about the world)

is done by people (and not always “scientists”)

• Synthesis– Science provides a unifying idea (theory)

that explains many different things

Global Wind Systems

Historical

Aristotle

Isaac Newton

Christopher Columbus

Edmond Halley

George Hadley

William Ferrel

World Map Showing the “Four Winds”

http://usm.maine.edu/maps/exhibition/8/3/sub-/where-the-winds-blow

“T-O” Map Showing the “Eight Winds”

http://www.taringa.net/posts/offtopic/6355668/El-mar_-terror-y-fascinacion.html

World Map Showing the “Twelve Winds” of Aristotle

http://usm.maine.edu/maps/exhibition/8/3/sub-/where-the-winds-blow

http://www.chroniclesofamerica.com/maps_of_america.htm

Edmond Halley’s Map of the Major Global Wind Systems (1686)

http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/research/projects/DeptII_Daston_Collective

George Hadley

http://apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/classes/met130/notes/chapter10/single_cell.html

The Ferrel Cell

The Ferrel Cell

http://greenfieldgeography.wikispaces.com/IGCSE+and+GCSE+Weather,+Climate+and+Ecosystems

Synthesis

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Gov-Inc/Hypothesis-Testing.html

http://xkcd.com/242/

Thinking Like aScientist

“Earthrise” from Apollo 8 December 24, 1968

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise

Apollo 17 View of the Earth“Blue Marble”

December 7, 1972

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Marble

“Blue Marble” from MODIS(Available as an iPhone background)

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/BlueMarble/printall.php

MODIS Land, Ocean, Ice, Cloud


MODIS Land Only


The Hadley Circulation

MISR Directional Hemispheric Reflectance (DHR)

http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/PRODOCS/misr/level3/product.html

One Month of Precipitation from the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM)

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=1017

MODIS Land, Ocean, Ice, Cloud


MODIS Cloud Only


Jupiter Composite from the Cassini Spacecraft

http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-92989/Bands-of-pastel-colored-clouds-encircle-the-giant-planet-Jupiter

Seeing the Wind

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing

Ocean Surface Winds from the QuikSCAT Instrument on the SeaWinds Satellite

http://www.scp.byu.edu/gallery.html

QuikSCAT Mean Ocean Winds Annual Climatology

NCEP Reanalysis Mean Ocean Surface Winds Annual Climatology

NCEP Reanalysis Mean Winds Annual 0 - 1 km Climatology

NCEP Reanalysis Mean Winds Annual 2 - 3.5 km Climatology

NCEP Reanalysis Mean Winds Annual 3.5 - 5 km Climatology

NCEP-2/MISR Zonal Mean Wind PlotsDecember 2001 – August 2007

Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR)

Nine view angles at Earth surface:70.5º forward to 70.5º backward

Nine 14-bit pushbroom cameras

275 m - 1.1 km sampling

Four spectral bands at each angle:446, 558, 672, 866 nm

400-km swath: 9-day coverageat equator, 2-day at poles

7 minutes to observe each sceneat all nine angles

http://misr.jpl.nasa.gov/

MISR Low Cloud Wind Vectors for January 2011

MISR Low Cloud Wind Vectors for July 2011

Where Does the Wind Blow?

Frequency of Wind Speeds Greater than 20 m/s (45 mph)

Low High

Height ≤ 1 km AGL


Low High

Height ≤ 2 km AGL


Low High

Height ≤ 3 km AGL


Low High

Height ≤ 4 km AGL


Low High

Height ≤ 5 km AGL

22

3

2

3

22

4

2 22

3 55 4

219158

5842

1315

73

986

22

10°N

20°N

30°N

15°N

25°N

35°N

10°W 0°E 10°E 20°E 30°E5°W 5°E 15°E 25°E 35°E

Bodélé Depression

Ténéré DesertWestern

Sahara Desert

Algeria

Mauritania

Mali

Niger Chad

Libya

Sudan

Nigeria

Qattara Depression

Selima Sand Sheet

Egypt

Mediterranean Sea

Sahara Desert

Frequency of Wind Speeds Greater than 20 m/s (45 mph) over Africa (DJF)

The Bodélé Depression

Credit: Giles (2005), Nature, “The Dustiest Place on Earth”

Credits: Giles (2005), Nature, [Lower left, upper right]Bristow et al. (2009), Geomorphology [Upper left, lower right]

Africa

South America

United StatesAug 29 Aug 26 Aug 25 Aug 24 Aug 23 Aug 22 Aug 21 Aug 20 Aug 19

Dust from the Sahara Desert Reaches Houston, Texas

Observations from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR)Instrument on NASA’s Terra Satellite

Some Resources• MISR

– misr.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/worldmap.html• JPL (Solar System)

– photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/Help/ImageGallery.html

• NASA (Animations)– svs.gsfc.nasa.gov

• Google Image Search

Current MISR Wind Product New MISR Wind Product

New and Improved!

global winds

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