Unit 1Physical

Geography:Climate & Weather

Ch. 1, Pg 50-558/24/15

Physical Geography

Processes that shape the earth’s landforms and its climates, and focuses on how human

practices interact with physical patterns

Q: What is climate?

A: Weather patterns that an area typically experiences over a long period of time.

Depends on elevation, latitude, and relative

location to other landforms and bodies of water.

Q: What is weather?

A: Condition of the bottom layer of the earth’s

atmosphere in one place over a short period of time. Depends on temperature, precipitation, and wind.

“Climate is what you expect; weather is

what you get.”

The source of the earth’s climates is

the SUN.

Greenhouse EffectEarth’s atmosphere traps the sun’s

warmth for growing plants. Without this effect…earth would

be too cold for most living things!

Not all places on the earth get the same amount of heat and light from the sun.

Why?

Global Climate Change

• Planet Earth is continually undergoing climate change

• Present trend of “global warming” appears to be due to humans and may be happening faster than changes in the past

• Greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide and methane) are trapping heat in atmosphere

• Kyoto Protocol – an international agreement that sets targets for industrialized countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases

Day Night

Seasonal ChangesDiffering Climates

Different Types of Vegetation Caused by the Position of

Earth to the Sun

Movement of the Earth…Rotation: Earth spinning on its

axis (23 ½ tilt), one rotation = 24 hours. Facing the sun = day,

facing away from sun = night. Revolution: As Earth spins on its axis it is also moving around the

sun on it’s orbital path. One revolution = 365 ¼ days or 1 year.

The earth’s tilt also means that sunlight strikes different parts of

earth more directly at certain times of the year. Earth’s axis always tilts toward the North

Star.Solstice = June 22/Dec 22 when

sun is directly overhead Tropic of Cancer/Tropic of Capricorn.

Equinox = March 20/Sept 23 at noon on these days the sun

appears directly over the equator.

So how does this affect temperature and climate?

Warmer year round at the equator… gets cooler moving north or south.

Three Climate ZonesTropics: 23½ North to 23½ South.

Temperate: 23½ North to 66½ North, and 23½ South to 66½ South.

Polar: 66½ North or South to the 90 pole.

Latitude/Climate Zones

Polar

PolarTemperate

Temperate

TropicalTropical

Why do seasonal changes occur?

The earth’s position relative to the sun is not straight up and down.

Remember what the tilt is?Because of the tilt, the Tropic of Cancer (23 ½ north) and the Tropic of Capricorn (23 ½

south) are the boundaries of the places on the earth that receive

the most direct sunlight.

How does the sun’s heat affect vegetation?

1.Wind Patterns2.Ocean Currents

3. Precipitationa. Nearby bodies

of waterb. Elevationc. Nearby

landforms

Wind Patterns•Redistributes sun’s heat over earth•Coriolis Effect

If the earth was standing still, then the winds would blow in a straight line, but the earth is rotating, this movement deflects or bends the wind patterns, this is called the Coriolis Effect

Ocean Currents•Redistributes the sun’s heat

in oceans•Warm water to poles; cold

water to tropics

Precipitation•All forms of water that fall from the atmosphere when water vapor cools                                        

Convectional –hot humid air rises and cools, common near equator

Frontal (Cyclonic) – 2 fronts or air masses meet, most common

Orographic – warm moist air is forced upward when passing over high landforms

Hydrologic Cycle

1.

2.3.

4.

Water Cycle Animation

• http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.watcyc.watercycle/water-cycle-animation/