Important Terms: Climate, latitude, windward, leeward, elevation, precipitation, prevailing winds; Materials: Student Activity Sheet " Factors That Influence Climate", world atlas, pencil/pen; Procedure: 1. Review the table entitled "Factors that Influence Climate with the class.
Causes of Climate Change
- Earth's temperature is a balancing act.
- The greenhouse effect causes the atmosphere to retain heat.
- Changes in the sun's energy affect how much energy reaches Earth's system.
- Changes in reflectivity affect how much energy enters Earth's system.
What are the effects of climate change?
- rising maximum temperatures.
- rising minimum temperatures.
- rising sea levels.
- higher ocean temperatures.
- an increase in heavy precipitation (heavy rain and hail)
- shrinking glaciers.
- thawing permafrost.
These have been caused by many natural factors, including changes in the sun, emissions from volcanoes, variations in Earth's orbit and levels of carbon dioxide. Global climate change has typically occurred very slowly over thousands or millions of years.
Climate change can result from natural processes and factors and more recently due to human activities through our emissions of greenhouse gases. Examples of natural factors include; Changes in the sun's intensity. Volcanic eruptions, or slow changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun.
The Earth's climate can be affected by natural factors that are external to the climate system, such as changes in volcanic activity, solar output, and the Earth's orbit around the Sun.
There are approximately five main climate types on Earth:
- Tropical.
- Dry.
- Temperate.
- Continental.
- Polar.
There are many elements that make up both the weather and the climate of a geographical location. The most significant of these elements are temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind, solar irradiance, humidity, precipitation,condensation and topography.
Its components The climate system, as defined in this Report, is an interactive system consisting of five major components: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the land surface and the biosphere, forced or influenced by various external forcing mechanisms, the most important of which is the Sun (see Figure
The factors that influence climate are:
- pressure and wind.
- ocean currents.
- mountain barriers.
- latitude.
- altitude.
- land and water distribution [how close to or far from a large body of water]
- storms.
Definition. A condition of the soil, whether physical, biological or chemical, that influences the organisms and processes that occur in the soil.
Higher temperatures mean that heat waves are likely to happen more often and last longer, too. That's because increasing air temperature also affects the oceans, weather patterns, snow and ice, and plants and animals. The warmer it gets, the more severe the impacts on people and the environment will be.
Familiar aspects of weather include temperature, precipitation, clouds, and wind that people experience throughout the course of a day. Severe weather conditions include hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, and droughts. Climate is the long-term average of the weather in a given place.
The three main factors of weather are light (solar radiation), water (moisture) and temperature.
The weather is just the state of the atmosphere at any time, including things such as temperature, precipitation, air pressure and cloud cover. Daily changes in the weather are due to winds and storms. Seasonal changes are due to the Earth revolving around the sun.
The main factors which affect air temperature at a particular location are solar radiation, atmospheric circulation, and local physical geographical conditions. Radiation is the leading factor.
The temperature of ocean water varies by location – both in terms of latitude and depth, due to variations in solar radiation and the physical properties of water.
Distance from the sea – Oceans heat up and cool down much more slowly than land. This means that coastal locations tend to be cooler in summer and warmer in winter than places inland at the same latitude and altitude.
There is a relationship between latitude and temperature around the world, as temperatures are typically warmer approaching the Equator and cooler approaching the Poles. There are variations, though, as other factors such as elevation, ocean currents, and precipitation affect climate patterns.
1. Latitude or distance from the equator – Temperatures drop the further an area is from the equator due to the curvature of the earth. In areas closer to the poles, sunlight has a larger area of atmosphere to pass through and the sun is at a lower angle in the sky.
