Climatic Hazards (Atmospheric Circulation)

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Aaron Evans        Essay - 1.1 (Them e 3) Geography

Climatic Hazards (Atmospheric Circulation)

Our planet is made up of many different climate zones that are located in different parts of the world and climate is the main reason why we have different areas such as rainforests and desserts.

   The main major climate zones are ‘tropical’ where rainforests are located at tropical latitudes on the equator with some exceptions, e.g. Indonesia. Australia and Northern Brazil are good examples of large rainforests. The sun is high up in the sky and these areas gain a lot of sunlight throughout the year averaging temperatures of approximately 34°c. Polar is a major climate zone and is of course mainly around the Poles b between 60-90°c North and South. These climates are very dry and freezing cold with fairly mountainous terrains e.g. Antarctica. Arid is a very important world climate and consist mostly of our very dry and warm areas e.g. our desserts. They are located around the tropic of cancer and tropic of Capricorn in countries such as North Africa where we have the Sahara dessert. These are very dry because prevailing winds come over the land and land masses are very large. Finally we ‘temperate’ climates such as in the UK which are located 40-60°c North and are fairly dry but can also be very wet and are also very cold with a lot of vegetation growth.

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   I have stated that major climate zones are clearly caused by our climate but specifically the main factors that influence our climate zones are firstly ‘the angle of the sun’ which affects these climates. The energy from the sun is not distributed evenly when hitting the earth mainly meaning there is a net surplus of energy at the equator and a deficit at the poles because the sun rays have to travel a long way meaning they are distributed and the amount of energy hitting the equator will be the same hitting approximately between 60°c and the poles North ...

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