How does the Monsoon affect life in India?
How does the Monsoon affect life in India? A monsoon is a wind pattern that reverses direction with the seasons. The term was originally applied to seasonal winds in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. The word is also used more specifically for the season in which this wind blows from the south-west in India and adjacent areas that is characterised by very heavy rainfall, and especially, for the rainfall associated with this wind. In terms of total precipitation, total area covered and the total number of people affected, the monsoon affecting the Indian Subcontinent dwarfs the North American monsoon (also called the "Mexican", "south-west", desert or "Arizona" monsoon). Monsoons are caused by the larger amplitude of the seasonal cycle of temperature over land as compared to the adjacent oceans. This differential warming results from the fact that heat in the ocean is mixed vertically through a "mixed layer" that may be 50 meters deep, through the action of wind and buoyancy-generated turbulence, whereas the land surface conducts heat slowly, with the seasonal signal penetrating perhaps a meter or so. Additionally, the specific heat of liquid water is significantly higher than that of most materials that make up land. Together, these factors mean that the heat capacity of the layer participating in the seasonal cycle is much larger over the oceans than over land, with the
Why does temperature vary around the world?
Why does temperature vary around the world? There are many reasons why the temperature varies around the world, why it is often very hot in some places but below freezing in others. The main factor in temperature is the sun, and it is because of the sun that places are not way below freezing in the first place. The sun is our main source of heat, and places that get more sun are obviously warmer than those that don't receive as many of the sun's rays. There are many different causes that the temperature varies around the world, and they all affect our climate in many ways. One of the most important factors affecting temperature is latitude. Places nearer the Earth's equator are far warmer than those near to the poles. This is due to the shape of the Earth and the way the rays of the sun hit the planet. Since the Earth is spherical, the suns rays will be far more concentrated at the equator, as the sun is always far higher in the sky, so it will concentrate its rays on a small area. And as the sun is far lower in the sky around the poles, the rays are shared over a much larger area, and the temperatures will stay down. Also, as you can see on the diagram, towards the poles, the sun's rays have much further to travel through the Earth's atmosphere before they reach the Earth than the rays at the equator. As the rays pass through the atmosphere, they lose heat in the
how does a match affect the workings of a molecular charged planet?
http://www.evergreenaviation.com/EHI/specsheets/bell205.html http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0477(1970)051%3C1121:VOREWS%3E2.0.CO%3B2 http://www.allthingsarctic.com/weather/index.aspx http://www.quarkexpeditions.com/arctic/enviro.shtml Some coastal areas endure almost constant strong winds, whereas other areas may be quite calm much of the time and then suddenly experience hurricane force winds as air rushes down through glacial valleys. These sudden and unexpected winds are called katabatic, or down slope, winds. The famous Australian explorer Douglas Mawson established a base there in 1912 and recorded wind speeds for two years. This is reputed to be the windiest place on earth, because the average wind speed during that period was 72 kilometres per hour (45 miles per hour), and gusts of more than 240 kph (150 mph) were common. Nevertheless, wind speeds have been observed to drop very significantly just a few miles away from the coast. Visitors to the Arctic should be aware that katabatic winds can occur quite suddenly, and with little warning, but then die down again just as quickly. They create dramatically low effective temperatures, due to the wind-chill factor. Also strong gale-force winds are quite common, especially in the region between 40º-60ºS. These cyclonic storms are caused by extremely cold air coming from
(a) What is meant by the concept of climax communities in plant succession? (b) Analyse the role of human activity in plant succession.
Section C- Ecosystems Chloe Borthwick (a) What is meant by the concept of climax communities in plant succession? Succession is the long term change in a plant community from a bare inorganic surface to a climax community. The series of changes happen over time (temporal) and space (spatial). A climax community is reached when habitat is stable, the vegetation is in equilibrium with the local environment, and in balance with the climate and the soils of the area. The plants go through the prisere, which is a chain of successive seres from a pioneer community to a climax community. Each successive sere usually has an increase in the number of species and the height of the plants. For example Studland Bay in the South West of England has a pioneer species of sea lyme grass which succeeds to the climax community of oak, which was mainly influenced by the climate. (b) Analyse the role of human activity in plant succession. Plagioclimax, if reached can stop or alter the natural succession so climatic climax can never be achieved resulting in a sub climax. A few examples of this would be clearing, burning, planting, harvesting, urbanisation and pollution. Secondary succession would be a result of this as it would occur on a surface that had previously been influenced by an allogenic factor, for example land clearings from forest fires. There are few physical environments
'Despite advances in technology, weather forecasting is still an imperfect science'. Discuss
'Despite advances in technology, weather forecasting is still an imperfect science'. Discuss Despite the increase in meteorological technology combined with the advanced skills of well-educated humans, weather forecasting is nevertheless inaccurate at times. However it is not solely due to factors such as inadequate technology or expert negligence towards observation and data interpretation. The weather is a phenomenally active and unpredictable, often astounding even the most knowledgeable of meteorologists for example when El Nino occurs; yet the significance of weather forecasting is imperative for industry, agriculture and commerce. The fact that weather forecasting can be regarded as an imperfect science is a most controversial statement, as it is inevitable that with three key areas that must be accounted for in order to make a sound prediction the misinterpretation of one section may cause the entire accuracy of the prediction is jeopardised. These three main processes attributed to weather forecasting are; observation, analysis of data, and preparation for the forecast provided by the computers. It is proven that the weather patterns during different minor weather events are fairly repetitive yet not completely identical. Modern day advances in the global weather predictions, have proven to be able to collect information to the remotest of places through use of
Explain what is meant by the term 'periglaciation' - Describe and explain the landscape features which result from periglacial processes.
A. Explain what is meant by the term 'periglaciation'. B. Describe and explain the landscape features which result from periglacial processes. The term 'periglacial' is applied to land areas, which lie around the margins of ice sheets and glaciers. These areas can be found in high latitudes and high altitudes. The landforms produced by periglacial processes occur in a range of cold, non-glacial environments, not always adjacent to present-day ice masses. Two main examples would be, the Polar lowlands, e.g. southern Greenland and Highlands, e.g. Rockies, Alps and Himalayas. Frost action and the resulting weathering and mass movement are found not only in periglacial regions. However, within these regions they are especially intense and dominant. The most common environmental characteristic used to delimit present-day periglacial conditions is the presence of permafrost. Permafrost is perennially frozen ground, i.e. ground frozen continuously for two or more years. There are 3 main types of Permafrost: Continuous, is where the ground is completely covered. These areas are usually found in areas such as North Alaska. The second is discontinuous; this means there are patches of deeply frozen ground next to areas that are unfrozen and these are found in areas such as Iceland and South Canada. The last band is sporadic permafrost, where permafrost does exist but only in small
Atmospheric Processes - Depressions
Depressions are low pressure systems of the mid-latitude and are associated with the meeting of warm and cold air masses. These systems affect the British Isles in a number of different ways causing a number of impacts. The depressions themselves form over the polar front due to the convergence of both the polar maritime, a cold air mass, and the tropical maritime, which is a warm air mass. As the warmer air meets this colder air, it rises above it due to its lower density, leading to low pressure at the surface. The system tracks west to east towards Britain on prevailing wind belt. The jet stream on the rosby waves causes a convergence of the two masses. First of all pushes the air downwards, squeezing it against the ground to create high pressure and secondly moving upwards, releasing the air allowing an area of low pressure to form. This newly formed system of high and low pressure can lead to a number of different types of weather to occur. The conditions experienced vary from the beginning of the depression to the end. When depression first approaches there is a continuous fall in pressure and the visibility rapidly deteriorates with cloud formation of cirrus clouds beginning to occur. As the warm front approaches closer the depression changes direction with the southerly wind becoming more south westerly. The cirrus clouds turn to altostratus due to the warm air of
Conserving or Removing Mangroves
Q. Which is more important, conserving mangroves, or the benefits of exploiting and removing them? The issue of whether it is more beneficial to remove or conserve mangrove ecosystems has been predominant in recent years, and there being no one right answer to suit everyone makes it such a controversial topic. Some countries face the problem of being under the strain of debt and simply having populations under the poverty line, which can lead to a disregard for the environment as it can cost a lot to conserve mangroves, and economic benefit is prioritised ahead of taking care of mangrove ecosystems. On the other hand, in some areas of the world conserving mangroves can be hugely beneficial such as in Sri-Lanka, where they can act as a buffer zone to protect against coastal erosion, typhoons and so forth. One example where the economic purposes of removing mangroves has overwhelmed the benefits of conserving them is in Malaysia where the shrimp farming industry has developed rapidly since the 'successes' experienced in neighbouring Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines. Mangroves form only about 3% of the total land area in Malaysia. Most of the ponds used for farming prawns opened during the 1980's and early 1990's and involved the clear cutting of mangroves. This led to a detrimental effect on Local fisher folk who became severely concerned about the increased loss of
Is there a relationship between the frequency of natural hazards and climate change?
Is there a relationship between the frequency of natural hazards and climate change? Mrs Blair By Max Winborne Is the frequency of hurricanes and related storm types increasing? Globally, there is an average of about 90 tropical storms every year. According to the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate "there is no clear trend in the annual numbers [i.e. frequency] of tropical cyclones." However, in the North Atlantic there has been a clear increase in the frequency of tropical storms and major hurricanes. From 1850-1990, the long-term average number of tropical storms was about 10, including about 5 hurricanes. For the period of 1998-2007, the average is about 15 tropical storms per year, including about 8 hurricanes. This increase in frequency correlates strongly with the rise in North Atlantic sea surface temperature, and recent scientific studies link this temperature increase to global warming. There is an ongoing scientific debate about the link between increased hurricane activity(and related storm types) and global warming. The 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change rates the probability of such a link as "more likely than not". Most agencies around the world today tend to agree that there is a increase in storms that cause hurricanes and other such disasters, looking at this graph I borrowed from the geography
Outline how global warming may impact on human activity through increasing the level of extreme weather
Outline how global warming may impact on human activity through increasing the level of extreme weather. Global warming is believed by many scientists to increase the frequency and the intensity of many types of extreme weather. Extreme weather is weather which is unusually severe (e.g. when hot weather turns into a heat wave) or that occurs in an area where it’s unexpected (e.g. drought in a commonly wet area). Higher temperatures due to global warming cause changes in global air circulation and ocean currents. This means that some areas will experience less rainfall than usual and others will receive more. Areas experiencing less rainfall may have more frequent and more severe droughts. South-Eastern Australia has been suffering through a long-term drought since 2002. This drought has had many social, environmental and economic impacts on the lives of citizens. E.g. over 10,000 farming families have been forced to leave the Murray-Darling Basin in the last five years because they can no longer make a living from agriculture; because of the dry soil. Also, food prices have increased dramatically as crops which rely on irrigation have been particularly badly affected; rice production has fallen to 2% of pre-drought totals, meaning that poorer families are struggling to afford food. However Australia is a MEDC therefore it’s more able to cope with the impacts of the
