Key Topics
Question 1
Describe global patterns of atmospheric heating and circulation. What mechanisms produce high precipitation in the tropics? What mechanisms produce high precipitation at temperate latitudes? What mechanisms produce low precipitation in the tropics?
Answer:
The global patterns of the heating of atmosphere and circulation are relied on the model of three-cell that insists that there is the existence of three cells among the poles of the earth and the equator which regulates the behavior. These cells are known as the polar cells that operate among the latitudes of 60o and 90o. Further, the Ferrel cell operates among the latitudes of 30o and 60o and Hadley cell works among the latitudes of 00 and 300 (Shepherd, T. G. 2014). Moreover, the Hadley cell is mainly responsible for the winds of the trade which commence with the rising of warm air at the equator in the areas of reduced pressure up to the latitude of 30o until it sinks in the area of increased pressure. The polar cell is basically responsible for the easterlies of polar, rises of warm air and it further shifts to the high altitudes where the frosty air sinks because of high pressure (Bonan, G. 2015). Furthermore, the Ferrel cell is very complex, and it has the rising of warm air at the high altitudes which are near to the cooling and polar cell, and it then shifts to the low latitudes and sinking in the areas of high pressure in the low latitudes closer to the Hadley cell.
In the tropics, the high precipitation is reasoned by warm air from the converging of hemispheres in the convergence zone of the inter-tropic and the ascent of the air because of reduced pressure which gives rise to the convection in the climate (Kikuzawa et al., 2013). Further, high precipitation in the temperate zone takes place as an outcome of a various number of factors, including warm, cold and stationary fronts along with the systems of low pressure. The low precipitation in the tropical zone occurs as an outcome of warm, prevalent winds which are being encumbered by the ranges of a mountain as the mountains impose the moisture in winds in order to come down on the size of the mountain which is clotting the winds as the rain. And this recess the another side with the reduced precipitation.
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Use what you know about atmospheric circulation and seasonal changes in the sun's orientation to earth to explain the highly seasonal rainfall in the tropical dry forest and tropical savanna biomes.
Answer:
The systems of global pressure have an important role in the precipitation’s distributions of geography. The systems of global pressure impact the relationship among the patterns of the pressure and the precipitation's distribution. The tropical dry forest's biomes and the savannas communicate to the zone of climate. The tropical dry forest's geographical location, equator's down south and the up north causes the tropical forest to face the variations in the climate than the forest of tropical rain. The dry forest has the wet and dry seasons whereas the rains are less as compared to the rain forest (Corlett, R. T. 2014). The savannas of tropics also have the wet and dry seasons alternatively similar to the dry forests which are being overpower by the grasslands.
The area of the geography which gets day light directly is the convergence zone of inter-tropics and it further gets the sunlight directly which causes the air to rise unsteadily and further pressurizes to drop which makes the convergence zone a low-pressure area due to higher temperature and the unstableness in the air when the air gets condensed from the clouds and results to precipitations. The movement of the convergence zone impacts the patterns of precipitations of seasons, as the convergence zone is an area which gets the sunlight directly during the time of summers and further possess the tropics directly (Martin et al., 2013). The movement of the convergence zone impacts the patterns of the seasonal precipitation, in tropical climate's area where the sunlight is not directly possessed because of the high pressure which is not beneficial for the production of the clouds. Further, they cannot generate rain. The areas which don't get the sunlight are known as doldrums, compose the south and north of the convergence zone as they move parallel, and also the doldrums are liable for the tropics dry season. This helps in explaining the phenomena of the extravagant rain in the rainforest and the monsoons of the tropics in Africa as they are closer to the equator, closer to the convergence zone during most of the time of the year which favors the precipitations and the clouds.
Due to a geographical location on the side of the rainforest i.e. dry and wet forests which are under the convergence zone for the longer time more than the savannas which are situated in the northern hemisphere of the various dry forests in the South's southern hemisphere of the dry forests (Bertzky et al., 2015). The climate of savanna is measured as the opposite of the rain forest and monsoon which is typical to weather that is the tropical dry and wet climate.
Reference
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Bertzky, B., Bertzky, M., Worboys, G. L., & Hamilton, L. S. (2015). Earth’s natural heritage’. Protected Area Governance and Management, 43-80.
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Bonan, G. (2015). Ecological climatology: concepts and applications. Cambridge University Press.
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Corlett, R. T. (2014). The ecology of tropical East Asia. Oxford University Press (UK).
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Kikuzawa, K., Onoda, Y., Wright, I. J., & Reich, P. B. (2013). Mechanisms underlying global temperature?related patterns in leaf longevity. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 22(8), 982-993.
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Martin, K., & Sauerborn, J. (2013). Climate Zones and Land Use. In Agroecology (pp. 261-298). Springer Netherlands.
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Shepherd, T. G. (2014). Atmospheric circulation as a source of uncertainty in climate change projections. Nature Geoscience, 7(10), 703-708.