Geography Unit 1 - Lecture notes unit 1 PDF

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Asyncronous...

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Geography Unit 1 test study guide Instability: Temperature/Vertical motion 3 rule: all objects with a surface temp exceeding 0 emits radiant energy.  

Albedo clouds o Significantly reduces the amount of solar radiation reaching earth’s surface Surface isolation on Earth is strongest o Subtropical deserts

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To a large degree, the air temp is driven by ground surface temp. air warms because the underlying ground warms, cools because the ground cools

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As the latitude increases, the mean annual temp decreases and the annual temp range increases. Thus, seasonality increases poleward Regarding th maritime influence on climate, which statement is true? o There is a lower annual temp range compared to a continental location at the same latitude

Terms and Concepts 

Longitude/Latitude o A coordinate system fit to a sphere o The location of a place profoundly affects its character o Latitude  Angular distance from north or south of the equator as measured from center of the Earth  West to east o Equator  Line of latitude midway between north/south pole, with value of 0 o Longitude  Aka meridias  Angular distance east or west of a predetermined spot on the earth’s surface as measured from the center of the Earth  Lines of longitude run north-south o Prime Meridian  A line of longitude in a geographic coordinate system defined to be 0 degrees o International Date Line  Divides east and west hemisphere  Lies 180 degrees east/west of prime meridian  The boundary between one day and the next

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Time zones  Affected by meridians  Loosely Colombus’s mistake  Columbus discovered America while trying to sail to india Distortion  Map distortion  Flat maps are distortions of a spherical earth o Most accute when large areas are depicted  Township/range system o Used systematic corrections to accommodate converging meridians  Cylindrical projections o Projections of a map o Expand a sphere into a cylinder o Such projections accurately reflect distances north and south, but distorts east and west o Aka mercator projection Eliminating Spacial distortion  Mercator  Goode  Alber Earth’s Position in Solar System  Our solar system is located in the Orion spur of the sagittarius arm o Approximately 100,000 light years in size  Eccentricity of orbit o Deviation of a curve or orbit frim circularity o Elliptical orbit  Varies every 90,000 years affecting climate change  Perihelion o 3 January, 91.5 million miles o Point in Earth’s orbit nearest from the sun  Aphelion o 4 July, 94.5 million miles o Farthest point from the sun  Earth’s axil tilt o Plane of equator 23.5 degrees  Plane of ecliptic o Causes climate change  Equinox o The instant of time when the plane of Earth’s equator passes through the geometric center of the sun’s disk  Sun is closes to the equator  March 21-22

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 September 22-23 Solstice o Event that occurs when the sun appears to reach it’s most northernly or southernly excursion relative to the equator o Sun is furthest from equator  June 21-22  December 21-22 March of the seasones o A regular shift in the sun angle/day length  Produced by axil-tilt Solar inclination o Angular measurment of sun’s position above the horizon Insolatioin o Amount of solar radiation striking Earth’s atmosphere and surface o Rule  Solar inclination and concentration of isolation are directly related  Maximum insolation occurs at the subpolar point Sun shifts seasonaly nort/south

 o Glacial Periods  Glacial periods  100,000 years  Interglacial periods  10,000 years  Caused by axis o 24.5 degree max tilt o 22.5 degree min tilt o Over 41,000 years  Also caused by the position of the continents relative to the poles Atmosphere o Atmoshpheric composition  Carbon Dioxide  .036%  Argon  0.934%  Oxyen  20.946%  Nitrogen  78.084%  Trace gases  O3, SOx, NOx, CHx, H2O, synthetics, particulates/aerosols o Ozone

Resides in the stratosphere, where it acts as a sheild to protect Earth’s surface from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation o Structure of atmosphere  Stratosphere  Layer of stable air above the tropause; air temps in this layer increase with height  Tropopause  Upper boundary of the troposphere  Height varies with the latitude  Troposphere  Layer of sometimes unstable air nearest to the ground  Air temp decreases with height  Contains most of the mass of the atmosphere o Greater than 90% Air Density o Thin in the upper atmosphere, density decreases with altitude o Dense towards earth’s surface o Depends on temperature moisture content Atmospheric pressure o Declines with altitude and corresponds with declining air density o Variable temps/moisture conditions in Troposphere lead to variations in air pressure  Creates atmospheric instability/circulation o Thicker over equitorial regions, shallower over poles o Thicker in summer, shallower in winter Adiabatic lapse rate o Rate at which temperature of an air parcel changes in response to the compression or expansion associated with elevation change o No heat exchange o Dry vs. Moist  Latent heat is release when water condenses, thus decreasing the rate of temp drops as altitude increases o Stefan boltzman law  Objects radiate energy at an intensity proportional to the 4th power of their kelvin temp o Wien’s law  Objects radiate energy at a wavelength equal to 2,940 divided by their kelvin temp  Cool earth radiates long-wave radiation, more readily transferred than shortwave solar radiation o Albedo  Percentage of incoming light that is reflected  Reflected solar energy remains short-wave radiation and is less likely to be absorbed Barmometric Pressure 

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Pressure withing the atmosphere Standared atmosphere is a unit of pressure 101,325 PI= 14.696 PSI Turbulent transfer  Removal of heat from a surfase  Example o Dust devil...