Where Are Seasonal Changes In Day Length Least Important?

What Factors Affect a Region'southward Climate?

A region's climate is shaped past influences operating on all scales of space and fourth dimension from microscale to global. Many factors work together to shape the climate of any locality.

This page lists and describes some of the factors that control or aid determine the climate of a particular region. There are certainly others. Some of these factors can also be used to explain differences from one day to the next at 1 given location. For example, a humid, cloudy climate zone will by and large have less variability in temperature during the yr than a dry, sunny climate zone (the reasons are provided beneath). For the same reasons, a dry, cloud-gratis twenty-four hour period volition mostly have a bigger departure between the nighttime low and daytime high temperature than a boiling, cloudy day. Some controling factors for climate consist of:

Breadth is the most important climatic control, due to the outcome is has on the amount of solar radiation reaching the World's surface. The seasonal changes in incoming solar radiations, also as the length of the twenty-four hours, vary with latitude. In general, tropical regions experience little seasonal changes since the amount of solar radiation received changes little during the yr. Seasonal changes go more than pronounced the further yous movement abroad from the tropics toward the polar regions. The largest seasonal changes are plant in the arctic and antarctic regions because this is where there are the largest changes in the amount of solar radiations received during the year. If y'all consider the average temperature over 1 year, in general areas nearer to the equator are warmer than areas farther from the equator.

The figure above shows the general pattern of precipitation at different latitudes. This is related to where areas of ascent and sinking movement are near likely based on the general apportionment patterns around the earth. Keep in mind that the positions of the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone) and the polar fronts move with the seasons. For instance, in Northern Hemisphere Summer, the ITCZ moves north of the equator because the maximum solar heating moves north of the equator AND the position of the polar front end moves north since the warm/cold boundary is further north. In the Northern Hemisphere winter, both of these features movement toward the south. Note that these generalizations concerning temperature and precipitation are due to changes of latitude alone, while the actual climate of a region besides depends on some of the other factors listed below.

Elevation influences air temperature (since temperatures ordinarily subtract with height by about 6.five°C per one thousand meters or 3.6°F per 1000 ft) and can thus influence whether precipitation falls in the form of rain or snow. A local example is provided by the differences in temperature and precipitation between Tucson and Mount Lemon. Often in the winter precipitation in the valley is in the form of rain, while over the mountains it is in the grade of snow.

Another difference between loftier altitude locations (mountains) and depression altitude locations (sea level) is that the daily temperature extremes betwixt day and night are typically greater at higher elevations. This is mainly because there is so much less atmosphere above high elevation locations (i.e., less air molecules). During the twenty-four hours, less atmosphere ways that it is easier for the Sun'southward free energy to reach the surface and heat it. At night, less temper means fewer greenhouse gases and a weaker greenhouse effect, so the surface cools very quickly.

Proximity to Mount Ranges - mountain ranges can affect the climate for considerable distances by stimulating whirlwind formation. Some other way to state this is that large mountain ranges in the middle latitudes have some influence on the large-calibration weather pattern, i.east., the height pattern on 500 mb maps. Locally, orographic clouds and precipitation course on windward facing slopes, while a rain shadow is ofttimes found on the leeward slopes. An instance of the effect of topography on precipitation is shown in the effigy above.

Proximity to Large Bodies of H2o

The ocean's "moderating influence" is an important determinant of a region's climate. What this ways is that land areas near big bodies of h2o accept more than constant temperatures between summer and winter and between day and night compared to land areas far away from large bodies where at that place are ofttimes very large differences between summer and winter and between day and night. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Solar radiation free energy reaching the land surface is absorbed in a sparse layer of soil, and so the very top of soil heats apace. Conversely, solar radiation energy that hits water is absorbed over a great depth. Therefore, the h2o surface temperature changes slowly. In addition, because h2o is able to circulate, it distributes its energy through a much deeper layer compared to land surfaces where heat transfers between surface and subsurface layers is tedious. Water is slower to heat during twenty-four hours and slower to cool during the nighttime.
2. Much of the energy that is absorbed by the oceans is used to evaporate h2o. Remember we called the energy associated with stage changes of h2o "latent oestrus" because the energy is not used to alter the temperature of the water, but rather to change its phase (from liquid to vapor for evaporation). On the other paw for dry soil most of the free energy captivated goes into raising the temperature of the ground. Using the same concept, wet soils, then volition warm more slowly than dry soils since some of the free energy is used to evaporate the water in the soil.
3. Water has a high specific heat . It takes a great bargain more heat to raise the temperature of i gram of water one°C than in does to raise the temperature of 1 gram of soil or stone by 1°C. Also keep in mind that moisture soil volition have a college specific rut than dry soils.

Specific Heat of Diverse Substances.

Substance	Specific Heat
Water	ane.00
Air	0.24
Granite	0.nineteen
Sand	0.19
Iron	0.eleven

Therefore, over the form of a typical twenty-four hours (daily cycle), the land heats more rapidly and to a higher surface temperature than surrounding water, and information technology cools more apace and to a lower surface temperature than h2o for the aforementioned amount of incident solar energy. On longer time scales (yearly bike), ocean temperatures are slow to change with the seasons. Compared to the continental land areas, bounding main surface temperatures change trivial betwixt summer and winter (come across Globe Monthly Temperature Annimation). The closer a land area is to the ocean, the more than it is influenced by the body of water, and the more moderate the climate.

Ocean Currents

The circulation of the ocean is a some other primal factor in air temperature distribution.

Sea currents that have a northward or southward component, such every bit the warm Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic or the cold Humboldt Electric current off South America, finer substitution rut betwixt low and high latitudes.

The circulation of the bounding main.

A good example of the upshot of a warm current is that of the Gulf Stream in Jan, which causes a strong due east-west gradient in temperatures across the eastern edge of the N American continent.

Notice the vegetation patterns on the mountain pictured above.

The relative warmth of the Gulf Stream affects air temperatures all the mode beyond the Atlantic, and prevailing westerlies extend the warming issue deep into northern Europe. Equally a result, January temperatures of Tromsø, Kingdom of norway (69°forty'North), for instance, average 24°C above the mean for that latitude.

Soil Wet - A location with a dry surface (similar desert rock or sand) will tend to have larger temperature differences between solar day and dark compared to a location with a wetter surface. Wet surfaces tend to stay libation during the solar day because much of the sunday's energy is used to evaporate h2o, rather than heat the surface. In addition, wet surfaces accept a higher specific rut than dry surfaces, significant that more energy must exist gained (lost) to warm (cool) the surface.

Humidity The most important influence of water vapor in the atmosphere on surface temperature happens at nighttime. At dark, places with college amounts of water vapor in the atmosphre tend to stay warmer because water vapor is a greenhouse gas. During the day, water vapor absorbs some of the radiation free energy from the sun keeping the footing surface cooler. High relative humidity besides causes aerosol particles to swell and so that they absorb and reflect more radiation from the sun before information technology reaches the ground. Therefore, dry out desert regions like Tucson tend to accept relatively big temperature swings between day and dark compared with a non desert location.

Local topography - Variations in the slope of the basis affects the absorbed sunlight, exposure to winds, and runoff. An instance of this effect is shown in the figure above where different types of vegetation are favored on the opposing slopes of a mountain.

Deject comprehend - All of the above factors influence the corporeality and type of cloud encompass experienced by a local region. In general, clouds are a cooling influence during the solar day by reflecting solar radiation, and a warming influence at nighttime because they emit infrared radiations (same principle as greenhouse effect for gases). Thus, locations with loftier amounts of cloud encompass tend to experience less temperature variation over a day (cooler days, warmer nights) compared with a location with articulate atmospheric condition.

Nature of the surface - Local surface conditions might shape climate to a considerable extent. Consider the where would you cull to sit (or even stand) on a sunny day in July... Have you noticed differences in temperature as you drive out of Tucson city limits on a summer evening? Some examples:

• shaded surfaces (nether copse for example) do not get as hot as surfaces nether straight sunshine.
• Vegetated lands exercise non heat as rapidly as sand or rock because some of the free energy input is used by the plants to grow and transpire.
• The reflectance of a surface is important: black surfaces absorb more of the sun'due south energy than white surfaces.
• As mentioned in a higher place wet surfaces rut and cool more slowly than dry out surfaces.

Anthropogenic effects - Agriculture and other human induced changes in the amount of vegetation might take variable effects on local climate. With less vegetation, the surface has less moisture bachelor for evaporation. As a result, information technology experiences higher temperatures than the forested region. In addition, urban areas get "oestrus islands", i.east., warmer than the surrounding countryside for two master reasons:

1. The cobblestone, bricks, roofing materials, etc. of which modern cities are constructed better absorb solar radiation than soils and vegetation.
2. Man activities (power generation, transportation, etc.) generate heat, which warms cities.

Link to Earth'south Climate Zones

There are various ways to categorize the diverse climate zones around the globe. The link below is just 1 example. Unfortunately, we don't have time to cover this topic in detail. The Koppen Climate Zones

Source: http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/students/courselinks/fall12/atmo336/lectures/sec4/climate2.html

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