Meteorology, Sun, and Stars

What is it?Meteorology: the study of atmospheric phenomena

Weather Vs. Climate Weather: current state

of the atmosphere Rainy, cold, tornado,

sunny, hurricane, etc. Think: Short

term….”what’s the weather like outside?”

Climate: long term variations

Tropical, desert, polar, temperate.

Think: tropical, desert, polar

What causes weather and climate?

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!

Latitude, longitude, amount of sunlight, and Earth’s rotation.

Think about where various places and ecosystems are….do hurricanes occur in Norway?

The World’s Climates

Redistribution of Earth’s heat energy

The tropics and other places maintain fairly constant average temperatures because heat energy is redistributed around the world. The continual motion of air and water reallocates heat energy among Earth’s surface.

Virtually everything that we consider to be weather is part of this constant redistribution of Earth’s heat energy.

Air Masses Large body of air that takes on the

characteristics of the area over which it forms. Region where they are formed is called the

SOURCE REGION mT A cP cT mP

Global Wind Systems Particles deflect in

northern and southern hemispheres

Coriolis effect plus heat imbalence creates distinct weather patterns

Global Wind Systems ITCZ: Intertropical Convergence Zone: found

along the equator, it pushes air upward , low pressure area

Follows the path of the sun’s rays There’s a reason why we have tropical

rainforest!

Seasonal migration of ITCZ

Jet Streams