Atmospheric circulation

The atmosphere presses down on the earth an average of about 14.7 pounds of weight on every square inch it touches. Most people’s shoulders have an area of 12 square inches. So overall, the weight pressing on your shoulders is equaled out to be 176 pounds! This is called atmosphere pressure. Now it certainly doesn’t feel like there is 176 pounds pressing on me all day long, but there is an equal pressure pushing on me from all sides, including from within. In this experiment, we will…

Introduction: Atmospheric circulation patterns exert a tremendous influence on regional weather and climate especially in the mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere1. However, there is a significant debate over how patterns will respond to climate change. In this experiment, I will analyze climate models using a specific metric called sinuosity to determine how climate change will affect circulation patterns in the mid-latitudes. This information is impactful and important as changes in…

Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has been decreasing since at least the late 1970s. The atmospheric circulation of the Northern Hemisphere can respond strongly to changes in sea ice, leading to "changes in hemispheric wind patterns and the distribution of tropospheric temperatures and sea level pressures". This review analyzes several recent publications in order to summarize the known "physical processes that contribute to sea ice-atmosphere linkage", observational evidence that such linkage has…

ocean currents.. La-Nina and El-Niño are stages of the El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). ENSO is a series of consequent weather and ocean related phenomena. ENSO is also described by the changes in atmospheric pressure. La-Nina is part of the El-Niño Southern…

The area the Himalayas are geographically located within hold the greatest amount of ice outside of the polar region, and within the region, contains the ten largest rivers in Asia, (Wilkes & Eriksson, The Melting Himalayas: Cascading Effects of Climate Change on Water, Biodiversity, and Livelihoods, 2009). Although the Himalayas contain a great source of ice due to high alpine glaciers, climate change is rapidly changing the topography of this area by accelerating the melting of ice, (Wilkes,…

winter synoptic pattern and form part of the atmospheric circulation. However annual rainfall in SWWA has declined by approximately 10% since 1970, with a noticeable shift toward drier winter conditions continuing to this day. Not only has the number of winter storms decreased but also those that do occur bring less rainfall then what they used to. “This sharp drop in rainfall occurred at the same time as a global change in the atmospheric circulation.” (IOCI 2007). The last few decades…

CLIMATE CHANGE VS. CLIMATE VARIATION IN WESTERN CAPE The observed trends in average temperatures are evidence for climate changes in the Western Cape region. It is the main wheat production area of South Africa and responsible for almost 40% of the country’s total production. Wheat areas in the Western Cape are mainly rain-fed and the primary use of wheat is for bread making. Swartland is a sub-region of Western Cape and characterized by dry, hot summers and wet, moisty winters which is…

result of natural variations in solar radiation, atmospheric chemistry, oceanic and atmospheric circulations, volcanic eruptions, and other factors. However, it’s primarily caused by human activities that started during the…

temperature over the past 20,000 years from the last the last major ice event, but the true controversy comes from when they try to figure out why the warming is happening. There are two major thoughts on why this is occurring • Increasing the atmospheric concentration of the gas Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This is usually done by human’s industrial activities that emit this gas in the air causing it to trap long wave radiation reflected from the earth surface increasing the heat that is in the…

different ways. The two categories of hazards are natural and manmade. Natural hazards occur everywhere but based on the geographic location, single or multiple hazards can occur at once. Natural hazards branches into three categories and they are atmospheric, hydrologic, and geologic. Manmade hazards or also known as technological hazards poses many hazards that can affect communities. Manufacturing, transporting, and the utilization of chemicals, explosives, disease agents, radioactive…