1. What is climate? 1
Climate
Climate is the pattern of weather that occurs in an area over many years. It determines the types of plants or animals that can survive, and it influences how people live.
Elements of Climate: Temperature, precipitation, air pressure, humidity, days of sunshine, vicinity to large bodies of water and mountains.

2. Latitude and Climate 1 Latitude: Equator = 0 Poles = 90 Regions:
What is climate? 1
Latitude and Climate
Latitude:
Equator = 0
Poles = 90
Regions:
Tropics, Temperate,
Polar

3. Latitude and Climate 1 Polar Regions:
What is climate? 1
Latitude and Climate
Polar Regions:
Low angle of sunlight = less energy received
Polar regions are never warm.

4. What is climate? 1
Latitude and Climate
Between the tropics and the polar zones are the temperate zones (4 seasons)
The equator receives the most sunlight energy throughout the year (always warm,12 hours of daylight).

5. Other Factors Affecting Climate
What is climate? 1
Other Factors Affecting Climate
1.Large Bodies of Water -
2. Ocean Currents
3. Mountains/Rain Shadow
4. Cities

6. Climate Types 2
Classifying Climates

7. Adaptations 2 Structures or behaviors that help an organism survive
Climate Types 2
Adaptations
Structures or behaviors that help an organism survive
Stuctural-fur
Behavioral-hibernation

8. Climatic Changes 3
Earth’s Seasons
Seasons are short periods of climatic change caused by changes in the amount of solar radiation an area receives.
Because Earth is tilted, different areas of Earth receive changing amounts of solar radiation throughout the year.

9. Climatic Changes 3
High Latitudes
During summer at the north pole, the Sun doesn’t set for nearly six months.
During that same time, the sun never rises at the south pole.

10. What causes climatic change?
Climatic Changes 3
What causes climatic change?
Changes in solar radiation -
Continental Drift
Volcanic Activity
Changes in Atmospheric Gases -

11. Climatic Changes Today3
Climatic Changes Today
The greenhouse effect is a natural heating process that occurs when certain gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere trap heat.
Click image to view movie.

12. Climatic Changes Today3
Climatic Changes Today
Some gases in the atmosphere, known as greenhouse gases, absorb a portion of this heat and
then radiate heat back towards Earth.
This keeps Earth warmer than it would be otherwise.

13. Climatic Changes 3
Global Warming
Over the past 100 years, the average global surface temperature on Earth has increased by 0.6°C. This increase in temperature is known as global warming.
Researchers hypothesize that the increase in global temperatures may be related to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

14. Human Activities— Burning Fossil Fuels
Climatic Changes 3
Human Activities— Burning Fossil Fuels
When natural gas, oil, and coal are burned for energy, the carbon in these fossil fuels combines with atmospheric oxygen to form carbon dioxide.
This increases the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere.

15. Climatic Changes 3
Deforestation
Destroying and cutting down trees, called deforestation, also affects the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
As trees grow they take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
When trees are cut down, the carbon dioxide they could have removed from the atmosphere remains in the atmosphere.

16. Climatic Changes 3
The Carbon Cycle
Carbon, primarily as carbon dioxide, is constantly recycled in nature among the atmosphere, Earth’s oceans, and organisms that inhabit the land.