Geography 110H
Assignment 5
Due: Thursday, Oct. 22

1. This week the first part of the assignment requires you to look closely at some recent satellite-image animation loops, together with weather maps, and to interpret the patterns you see. Beginning with some maps collected last week by Bethann Ritter, I have collected some additional maps (although I did not get a chance to make my own animation) and these are linked to this page as indicated below.

Look both at the sequence of weather maps and at the various satellite-image loops and make careful observations of whatever details you can. In particular note the following:

Although it was easiest to record the weather maps and satellite image loops from the Weather Channel site, the Purdue Weather Processor had even better satellite image loops consisting of 12 frames taken at hourly intervals. Unfortunately I was unable to save these loops owing to the type of Java script that controlled them. But it would be worthwhile, while you are working on this assignment, to take a look at current images of the scenes from that site that are linked below.

Weather maps from the Weather Channel:
    Tuesday Oct. 13, 9:49 p.m. EDT
    Wednesday Oct. 14, 1998, 4:19 p.m.EDT
    Wednesday Oct. 14, 1998, 10:22 p.m.EDT
    Friday Oct. 16, 1998, 8:19 a.m. EDT
    Friday Oct. 16, 1998, 4:50 p.m. EDT
    Saturday, Oct 17, 1998, 10:10 p.m.EDT
    Sunday, Oct. 18, 1998, 7:50 a.m. EDT
    Sunday, Oct. 18, 1998, 1:19 p.m. EDT
    Sunday, Oct. 18, 1998, 9:49 p.m. EDT
    Monday, Oct. 19, 1998, 7:19 a.m. EDT
    Current version

Satellite images from the Weather Channel:

U.S. enhanced infrared:
    Tuesday, Oct.13, 1998, 9:15 p.m. EDT
    Wednesday, Oct. 14, 1998, 5:45 p.m. EDT
    Friday, Oct. 16, 1998, loop: 12:45-7:15 a.m. EDT
    Saturday, Oct. 17, 1998, loop: 3:15-9:15 p.m.EDT  [bigger version]
    Sunday, Oct. 18, 1998, loop: 1:15-7:15 a.m. EDT  [bigger version]
    Sunday, Oct. 18, 1998, loop: 3:15-8:45 p.m. EDT [big version only]
    Monday, Oct. 19, 1998, loop: 12:45-6:45 a.m. EDT [big version]
   current version

Tropical Atlantic enhanced infrared (includes eastern N. America, tropics, Atlantic):
    Saturday, Oct. 17, 1998: loop: 10:45 a.m. - 7:45 p.m. EDT
   Sat. Oct. 17, 7:45 p.m. to Sun. Oct. 18, 4:45 a.m. EDT
   Sunday, Oct. 18, 10:45 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. EDT
    Sunday, Oct. 18, 10:45 p.m. to Mon., Oct. 19, 4:45 a.m. EDT
    current version

GOES Satellite loop, color IR enhanced, western hemisphere:
    Saturday, Oct. 17, 10:45 a.m. - 7:45 p.m.
    current version

Purdue Weather Processor infrared satellite images
US Enhanced IR Satellite loop (12 hours - better than Weather Channel)
        Eastern Enhanced IR Satellite loop
Hemisphere Enhanced IR Satellite loop
        Satellite Surface Map loop
   

Images/Movies of Hurricanes and Special Events
    Hurricane Georges approaching Gulf Coast - Sept. 28, 1998 (4.6 mb MPEG)
    Hurricane Georges striking Dominican Republic - good view of eye (September 22) (excellent picture)

 

This week we are in transition from our discussion of weather systems - including such phenomena as midlatitude cyclones, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and tropical cyclones - to the broader topic of global climates and atmosphere-ocean interactions. Last week some of you already had begun to investigate specific weather systems or the broader implications of large-scale phenomena (e.g. El Nino/Southern Oscillation). However the assignment did not explicitly target these phenomena.

This week the assignment is also open-ended, but I want to recommend several potential areas of interest. I am also requesting this time that you post a brief report, with reference to appropriate sites, on the class bulletin board, so that everyone else can access your findings. If there are elements of your report that cannot be posted in this way, you can hand those to me in class on paper.

The chapter in the textbook on global climates provides an overview of typical climate classification schemes using temperature and precipitation as the primary variables. Like comparable chapters in most physical geography texts, it focuses on the Koppen classification system and presents a world map showing climate regions based on that system; specific examples of each climatic region are then presented with a climograph to illustrate annual and seasonal patterns of temperature and precipitation, and these are explained within the broader context of the general circulation of the atmosphere and oceans. The chapter continues with a discussion of global climate change scenarios. My experience in looking for appropriate resources on the World Wide Web is that it is very hard to locate materials that are directly related to the climate classification map or to regional climates, but that there are a lot of materials available that pertain to climate change, global warming, and large-scale phenomena like El Nino.

For this assignment, therefore, you are invited to focus either on (a) a particular weather event, such as a tropical cyclone or other severe storm system; (b) a large-scale weather pattern that is tied to the global pattern of pressure and winds, such as the Asian monsoon or El Nino/Southern Oscillation; (c) some aspect of global climate change; (d) some aspect of ocean climatology or circulation.  However, in doing so, I would also request that you examine the implications for a particular area of the globe with reference to its regional climate as described in the Koppen classification scheme. For example: if you choose to discuss a particular tropical cyclone and its impacts, make sure to mention what track it followed, which regional climate types were located along that track, and the extent to which the impacts of the cyclone are part of the typical climate of that region. As another example, if you look at the impacts of El Nino on some part of Australia, make sure that you make some reference to the regional climate classification of the area affected and the "typical" pattern of climate that would be expected, as well as the nature of the departure from "typical" conditions that resulted from the El Nino. Or, if you are looking at some aspect of global climate change, try to relate your information about projected changes to the present-day climatic regime in a particular area.
 
In working on this assignment, note that many of the useful links are available in last week's list, which you can access from here. Other links that may be of use are provided below.

WORLD OCEAN CIRCULATION EXPERIMENT (WOCE)
TMAP Numerical Ocean Modeling Experiments (includes simulations of 1982-83 El Nino) \
The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Array (from NOAA)

El Nino (link to sites on last week's list)

Global Change and Climatic Warming