GEG 3107 Lecture 2: Lecture 2
Document Summary
Lecture 2a polar climates of past and present. Weather station, including temperature loggers used to measure snow depth. Climate = long term average of weather (at least 30 years) 30 year normal (available through environment canada) Was chosen as 30 years is a sufficiently large sample size. This is likely no longer true (first 10 & last 10 are very different) Main climate factors include: air temperature, precipitation, wind speed & direction, cloudiness, insolation (amount of sun, strongly tied to latitude), atmospheric pressure. Other factors: humidity, evaporation, soil temperature & moisture. Stevenson"s screens are used to measure air temperature. Def of arctic/antarctic circle: there will be 1 day of complete darkness and 1 day of 24h sunlight (on the solstices) Angle of the sun changes with position. Generally gets colder the higher into the atmosphere you go. But varies, especially in arctic regions (can get warmer as you rise) Distribution of land and sea, especially in polar regions.