GEOG 2120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Shortwave Radiation, Atmospheric Circulation, Plate Tectonics
Document Summary
Physical and biological characteristics of places - rainfall, temperature, vegetation - are critical to the transformation of regions as they provide constraints and opportunities for human activities. The fundamental earth-system processes that shape world regions are. Weather - the short term state of the atmosphere. Climate - the typical conditions of the weather expected at a place often measured by long term averages. Influences: inputs of solar energy from the sun, the configuration of the major continents, oceans, and mountain ranges. The spherical shape of the earth, the tilt of its axis, and it"s orbit around the sun. Local weather conditions do not disprove changing climates. Changing seasons, daily weather conditions, and the variety of earth"s climates remind us of the constant energy flowing through the atmosphere. Today we follow solar energy through the troposphere to earth"s surface. The outputs of reflected light (albedo) and emitted longwave energy from the atmosphere and the surface counter the input of insolation.
