Two instructors, primarily Shambaugh-Miller

Read the book

Instructors have a tendency to be informal – grrrr

• Must be because of the limited utility of the field

Consider and be aware of the scientific method

• facts – simple statement that can be proven

• hypothesis – limited explanation of a phenomeenon

• law – statement about an observed phenomenon or a univfying concept

• theory – in-depth explanation of the observed phenomenon

Science proves nothing – mathematics, however, does

Mike needs a copy editor!!

Geography in the news

• Hurricane Dorian – another reason not to go to Florida

• Burning rainforest – waiting for apologies

• Pumice raft from undersea volcano

Life, The Usiverse, And Everything

• How it got here, and where is here?

• "Big Bang Theory"

• Steady-state universe – it has always been here

• Universe expansion may be faster than once thought

Solar system

• Not understood completely

• 4.5—5 billion yo

• Started as a nembula, contracted into protostar, then in sun

• Sun not exact center

• eight planets revolve in elliptical orbits

• for terrestrial, four jovian planets

• Four steps

  1. protogalactic cloud

  2. collapses, halo stars form

  3. angular momentum ensure remaining gas flattens into disk

  4. star-gas-star cycle supports star formation

• Moon is 1% of Earth's mass

• Moon has no volatiles

Careful of high-pressure systems

Farmer's Almanac is 64% correct — on par with NOAA/NWS

The Geographic Grid

Distortion and geometry — flattening a sphere causes distortion

Projection — mathematical functionality

Mercator built on navigation, varies distance of latitude lines, does not preserve size

Gall-Peters — equal area, distorts chapes

GPS made many projections less helpful

Non-rectangular projections used instead

Winkel-Tripes used by National Geographic

Recall that the earth is wider at the equator (due to centrifugal force) — means earth is oblate spheroid, wider at the middle by 42 miles

Consider great-circle routes

Small-circles are through anywhere except the exact center

Latitude and Longitude

Vertical lines denote longitude/meridians

Horizontal lines are lines of latitude

Degrees of latitude/longitude at equator are 69 miles

Degree Minute Second, Degree = 60 minutes, Minute = 60 seconds

Equator, Tropics (of Cancer and Capricorn), (Ant-)arctic Circle

International Geophysical Union changed continents, now Europe and Asia are considered one, Zealandia may become one

Parallels of latitude: seven major, equator, tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, arctic and antarctic circles, poles

Cancer is north, Capricorn in the south

Lincoln is 40.8N, 96.7W

Axis tilted about 23.5

Rotation of earth at 1670 kph at equator

Rotation from west to east (counterclockwise if viewed at the north pole)

Other systems for lat/long

• What 3 Words

• Plus Codes

• UTM

• Nat'l Grid

• USPS 5 and Plus 3

• PLSS

Earth/sun relationships

True and magnetic norths converged

Rotation — spin on an axis (24.25 hr)

Revolution — movement around a location

Solstice — sun is directly overhead, sun is at its furthest north/south of the equator

Tropics — where sun is directly overhead on the two solstices

Equator — great circle dividing the earth in half at the midpoint between both poles

Equinox — when sun is directly over equator

Aphelion — furthest point of sun and Earth

Perihelion — Closest point of Sun and Earth

Lincoln solstice is around June 21st

Aphelion is around July 4th

Perihelion is around January 4th

ap-/peri-helion are about 2 weeks after the solstice

Rotation gives transition from day to night to day

Tidal effects from the moon and sun

Coriolis effect causing deflection of winds and currents

Inclination, 23.5 degrees with regard to the ecliptic, the polarity

Axis always points to polaris

inclination is also known a obliquity

Sun angle and azimuth

solar noon – highest solar angle

Time is used based on location

International and Scientific time are slightly different

DST

Makes better use of daylight, and saves energy

Maybe it doesn't work – it's a wash

No daylight is, in fact, lost

Keep in mind dawn and dusk!

Atmosphere is compressed due to gravity

Troposphere is lowest, where most weather occurs

Order, from lowest to highest

• Troposphere

• Stratosphere – location of the ozone layer

• Mesosphere

• Ionosphere/Thermosphere

Environmental vs atmospheric temperature

• atmospheric is the mean molecular motion of the atmospheric molecules

• Environmental temperature considers overall temperature

Atmospheric makeup

Inversions – warm air trapped between cold air

• Clear skies

• calm winds

• long nights

• Types

  • Ground

    • radiation and advection

  • Upper air

    • sibsidence, turbulence/convective, trade winds, ozone layer inversion

  • frontal

• Impacts

  • fog

  • pollution

  • decreased visibility

  • health problems

  • economic impacts

  • agricultural impact in hilly/mountainous regions

Elements and Control of weather

Consider angle of incidence and its relationship to latitude

Distribution of land and water. Water tends to soak up heat more, and hold on to it for longer. Kinda.

• proximity to large bodies of water stabilizes temperature

• Being central to a large land mass implies continental climate

Atmospheric circulation – very complex

• Wind moves to east in mid latitudes, to west in tropics

Oceanic circulation has minor influence on weather/climate

Daily impact of water-land boundaries

• Cool sea breeze during the day

• cool land breze during the evening

heated oceans affect thermohaline

Altitude – distance from the surface of the Earth, can also be distance from see level

• temp, pressure, moisture all decrease with increasing altitude

• particularly impacts mountanous regions

Changes vegitation and precipitation patterns

Topographic barriers – things on the landscape that change the wind patterns

Mountain/valley winds

Canyon winds – air goes through because of cooling of canyon walls

Valley winds – modified direction by forcing through canyon or gorge

Urban canyon winds – high-speed wind caused by air forced down and through tall buildings

Weather is confluence of many things

Coriolis effect – deflection patterns

cheesy jokes, test went okay

Light, why?

Light from Sun covers wide spectrum.

• Types of Light

• Light comes as Electromagnetic radition

• Spectrum, ~7 members

• Visible vs Invisible

• Wavelength, Frequency, Energy

• Low to high

  • radio waves

  • microwaves

  • Infrared

  • Visible

  • Ultra violet

  • X-rays

  • Gamma waves

energy interactions are what matter to weathter

Solar radiation, continued

Radiation heats atmosphere

Re-emission – long-wave terrestrial radiation

Emit more than is absorbed, earth cools

Emit less than is absorbed, earth warms

What is emitted by surface is absorbed by atmosphere or emitted directly to space

Can be emitted by atmosphere or clouds

25% absorbed by clouds, 25% reflected to space, remainder to the planet

Angle of incidence effects the amount of radiation absorbed per square unit

Drivers

• Incidennt Angle

• atmospheric Absorption

• Clouds

• Length of day

• Continentality

• large period orbital variation

Trade winds

Atmospheric Pressure

Rossby Waves

• Polar Vortex Outbreak

• When the jet stream changes orientation and direction and polar air comes further south than is normal (farther south than 60 north)

• Polar front, 60N, a/k/a polar jet stream

• Become Rossby Waves when very deep

Atlantic Trade winds

• Doldrums – places where the wind is not

• A/K/A the horse latitudes

ITCZ, itertropical convergence zone, moves because of seasons and insolation

Winds are controlled by presure and temperature

Hawaiian high – persistant, subtropical high pressure

• Azores high between Europe and US (Also called Bermuda High)

Wind Power Generation

ITCZ is why monsoon seasons happen

El Niño – warm phase, warm water, around december, coastal water, wetter weather, warmer in mid and upper plains

La Niña – cold phase, cold water on wester coast of S. America, normal, drier, colder in mid and upper plains

vapor capacity increases exponentially with increase in temp (as does saturation vapor pressure)

Vapor pressure is the contribution of waer vapor to the total pressure of the atmosphere

Saturation vapor pressure is the maximum possible vapor pressure at a given temperature

Saturated air contains more water at warmer temps than does colder temps

RH affects how we feel temperature

Dew-point temperature – critical temp at which saturation is reached

Cooling is most common way air brought to saturation and condensation

Sensible temperature is a concept of the relative temperature that is sensed by a person's body

Know

• Absolute Humidity

• Vapor Pressure

• Relative Humidity

• Dew Point

• Sensible Temperature

• Actual Mixing Ratio

• Saturation Mixing Ratio

Lifting Condensation Level – where the temp and pressure are such that clouds form, altitude at which dew point is reached

Cloud types

• High

  • Cirrus

  • Cirrocumulus

  • Cirrostratus

• Middle

  • Altocumulus

  • Altostratus

• Low

  • Stratus

  • Stratocumulus

  • Nimbostratus

• Vertical

  • Cumulus

  • Cumulonimbus

Lenticular clouds – get reported as UFOs, hang over mountains etc

Discussed Quiz, Exam, Current Course

How the Earth Changes

Energy Influk

Lifting Mechanisms

Convective lifting

• As a surface warms, air rises

• Sucks in more air

• Reaches LCL

• then at dew point

• Becomes cloud, may become precip

Frontal

• Warm air hits cold front

• Looses all moisture

Convergent

• Warm air sucked in, creates low pressure

Convective

• Bubble of air that rises

Precipitation that does not reach the ground is called "verga"/"virga"

Most precipitation is near the equator

Condensation nucleus determines pH of condensate

Alkalinity can happen because of what exists on the land

Air Masses classified using:

• c – continental

• m – maritime

• P – polar

• A – arctic

• T – tropical

condensation releases heat

radiation fog is shallow layers near ground

Fronts

• warm front - gentle, long distance

• cold front - steep, dense

• stationary front

• occluded front - gentle

fronts come from low pressure centers

• stationary front

• cyclogenesis

• mature cyclone

• occusion begins

• occluded front forms

• fronts dissipate, process restarts

More distinct the more severe the reaction

Hurricanes have different names because of history

Avection is heating over the water

Eye of storm is indication of strength, more distinct, more strong

Winds get weaker as you move up

Storm surge is the biggest issue, causes huge waves

Pando is dying, quaking aspin sharing same root system, estimated to be 8000-1000000 years old

• largest living organism

Even older living things

Three stages of thunderstorm

• cumulus – development, air gets sucked into storm through lifting mechanism

• mature – upward movement and downward giving heavy rain

• dissipating – dissipating, stops getting air coming in, rains lessen

Air coming down fastt creates microburst/gust front

Gust front can roll across the land

3 times the number of storms over land rather than sea

• Oceans don't release energy fast enough

Global atmospheric electrical circuit – coure of continuous movemnt of electricity between ionosphere and earth

solar radiation, thunderstorms, fair weather condition cause continual and substantial electrical current

Thunderstorms carry negative charges, gradually discharged through air in fair weather

Electrical imbalance

• elves in thermosphere

• sprites in mesosphere

• blue jets in stratosphere

• lightning, cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-ground, within cloud, ground-to-cloud in troposphere

Lightning

• Negative charge in cloud, positive charge on ground

• Cloud can have stratified charges

• 5/seconds per mile

• does not need to be close by to strike

Lake Maracaibo – lightning hotspot

Intracloud occurs within single thundercloud

Intercloud, starts and ends between two different thunderclouds

Cloud to ground, originates in thundercloud and terminates on earth's surface, may occur in reverse

Positive lightning is more dangerous

Postive lightning occurs with thundersnows, intense tornadoes, dissipation of a thunderstorm

Lightning may also occur because of volcanoes, tends to be positive

Can happen from airplane contrails; rocket engine exhaust; thermonuclear explosions

Tornadoes

• Mini low-pressure systems – FALSE!!

• Friction with ground causes rolling

• Rolling over warm ground causes avective lifting, which tilts upward

• Physics takes, eventually generating a tornado

• Tornadoes most frequent in May and June

• Nationally, last week of may; Nebraska, mid june

Fujita scale, measure based on damage, 0 to 5

What is the Earth?

How do mountains get there names? Comes from the culture that names it

Layers of the earth video

• 4000 mi radius

• Different layers

• Each layer has different properties

• As earth cooled, heavy materials sank, lighter materials rose

• Live on the "crust", must be solid, rock and loose material, very thin. 5 mi thick below oceans, 25 mi thick on continents

• Mantle is below, 1800 mi thick, top most is lithosphere, combination of crust and mantle, 60mi thick

• Asthenosphere, 60 mi tthick, semilquid, think silly putty

• Mantle is superheated rock, from 1600F to 7900f in temp

• Outer core, 1400 mi thick liquid layer, mostly iron, 7900F to 110000F, movements create magnetic field

• Inner core, solid layer, 780mi, iron and nickle, solid, may have 13000F temp

• Seismic waves used to determine this

Differentiation between mantle and crust is called the "mohoriffic discontinuity", or moho

Ocean vs continental crusts, ocean crust is majority basaltic

Ocean/continental meeting means lots of energy meeting

Mantle is largest

Lava from volcanoes is from lower mantle

Earth is a dynamo (electrical generator, more or less), generates magnnetic field, protects planet

Compositional and physical layers

• Physical – divided by solidity/rigidity

• Compositional

Layers of the earth graphic

Crust and upper mantle

• Igneous rocks (molten rocks that solidify)

  • Intrusive, granite, does not fully break through

  • Extrusive, basalt, broke through the crust

  • Pluton is an individual lump below the surface that eventualy gets to the surface

• Sedimentary rocks (sediments compact to become solid)

  • Weathered rocks, that are later recompressed

  • Horizontally layered, called strata

  • Limestone tends to come from aquatic life

  • Coal is a common organic content

  • Shale, sandstone, limestone

• Metamorphic rocks (preasure and heat change the above two)

Pangea and Super Continents

• Overlap of like rock/fossil strata

• Chemical identity of appalachian and caledonian mountains

• Ocean floor mapping

Late heavy bombardment era – helped to create the plates

Craton is a stable portion of a continental plate

Glaciers, Rivers, Coasts and Climate Change

Glaciation – when things are covered by glaciers

Major vs minor glaciations

Proof of ice ages

• geologic – scouring, scratching, moraines, drumlins

• Chemical – isotopes in folssils

• Paleontological – changes in distribution of fossils

Peaks and valleys in ice ages

Glaciations in quatenary

• Gunz/Nebraskan – 2 mya

• Mindel/Kansan – 1.25 mya

• Riss/Illinoisian – 500 kya

• Wurm/Wisconsin – 100 kya

Causes

• Atmospheric composition

• Large scale orbital cycles (Milankovitch cycles)

• Tectonic plate movement

• Solar output

• Orbital dynamics with regard to the Earth-Moon system

• Impact of meteorites and volcanism

Pliestocene, 2.59 mybp, ended 11700 ybp

Rebound – Central CA risen 1000 ft

Alaska rises at 1.4 in/yr

Glacial blue due to compression of snow to remove oxygen and other gasses

Ablation zone is where things melt (front, tongue)

Breaking apart

• crevassing

• Ablation speed increases

• Means calving when happens at the front of the glacier

Glacial Till are the rocks that are brought by the glaciers and left

Periglacial lakes – those formed by the glaciation as it recedes