The Role of Climate

What is Climate? Weather: is the condition of the atmosphere at any given time or place. Climate: this refers to the average year after year weather at a particular time of year. Fluctuations in climate are normal, that is why we refer to averages. There are many factors that effect climate. We shall go through a few of them in this discussion.

Greenhouse Effect GREENHOUSE EFFECT: despite all of the propaganda, the greenhouse effect is a good thing. Without it our average global temperature would be about 60 degrees F cooler than it is now (about 0 degrees F as opposed to around 60 degrees F). There are many greenhouse gasses. Carbon dioxide wrongfully gets all of the credit. There are Methane, water vapor and many others. The greenhouse effect is essential to maintaining the earth’s temperature, thus essential to life as we know it.

Latitude Latitude is a measurement that tells us how close an area is to the poles or the equator. 90 degrees south or north latitude would indicate the south or north poles, respectively. 0 degrees latitude would indicate the equator. Gaylord, MI lies very close to the 45th parallel or 45 degrees north latitude. This is of course a climate that is somewhere in between that of a polar region and an equatorial region (a little cooler on the average than right around here in Brighton, MI).

….continued In general, the closer to the equator, the warmer the climate, the closer to the poles, the cooler the climate. The Arctic Circle occurs at 66.5 degrees north latitude (Antartic 66 degrees South latitude). The tropics occur at 23.5 degrees North and South Latitude. Tropic of Cancer in the north, Tropic of Capricorn in the south. Within the tropics is the only place where a solar zenith will occur. This means that the sun will be directly over head.

Altitude Altitude refers to the elevation of a region regarding its relation to sea level. Typically, the higher the altitude, the cooler the temperature. This is why there are cool regions even in the tropics. Air becomes also thinner (lower atmospheric pressure) as we ascend above sea level.

Heat Transfer in the Biosphere The earth’s surface is constantly unevenly heated. Denser, cooler air is constantly displacing warmer, less dense air. This is the main force that drives the movement of the atmosphere (aka wind). The trend is for the sinking air in the poles to move toward the equator and force the lighter, warmer air at the equator upwards. Similar patterns of heating and cooling occur in the earth’s oceans. Land masses interfere with this. This effects climate.

…continued Coriolis Effect

Effect of Land Masses (a basic example)