The Oceans and Weather
NOTES.
- Most familiar weather systems occur at middle latitudes, but driving forces behind this activity are oceans far away
- The sea is especially warm, because solar heating is intense there.
- The ocean and atmosphere work together like a planetary thermostat,, sharing equally the task of exporting heat from equatorial regions towards poles.
- Some heat is carried in warm currents such as the Gulf Stream
- The warm air created rises because it is less dense
- Rotation of earth deflects air masses into ribbons of air that spiral around the globe, westward in polar and equatorial regions and eastward in the midlatitudes.
- The pattern inhibits a clean transfer of heat between north and south. Cold and warm air masses collide in midlatitudes causing powerful storms
- In the storms, warm air rises up and over the incursion of cold, denser air
- The warm air cools and the water vapor condenses into clouds and rain.
- Air releases large amounts of latent heat. Copious amounts of heat, along with moisture and wind energy flow across borders between air masses.
- Over 4 to 6 day period,the stormy boundary drifts from west to east, producing rain that falls at midlatitudes.
- Link between oceans and storms can be more explosive, intense storms called bombs.
- Bombs develop extremely quickly, taxing ability of weather forecasters and causing death and destruction.
- Ocean generates intense storms at lower latitudes around certain tropical regions
- In western Atlantic and eastern Pacific off Mexico and California, these storms are called hurricanes.
- Hurricanes form in places where ocean surface temp exceeds 27 degrees Celcius.
- Hurricane develops from original eddy in wind that causes low-pressure center to form.
- Disturbances may initially by small but if conditions in the ocean and upper atmosphere are right, 10% intensify into full-fledged hurricanes.
- Air moves inward from all directions toward the low-pressure center of the developing hurricane, picking up moisture evaporating from the warm ocean.
- As more air converges toward the eye, it has no place to go but upward.
- Temperature at the surface of the sea becomes critical factor. The exceptional warmth of the tropical ocean boosts amount of evaporation, allowing converging winds to pick up more moisture and release more latent heat. This intensifies the tempest of the storm
- When ocean provides more stable source of moisture in the atmosphere, it creates weather pattern that causes a monsoon.
- During summer, Asia and North Africa lands heat up considerably. Warm air rises over the Himalayas and mountains of Central Africa.
- The northward-moving winds pick up considerable moisture as the rotation of earth deflects them to the east.
- Air masses rise over the heated land areas and release their moisture in the form of monsoon rains in Asia and central Africa.
- Rains continue until winter where Air masses reverse direction, picking up moisture from the oceans before they reach southern Africa and northern Australia.
- Ocean and atmosphere in the Pacific perform an intricate poised pas de deux
- The Pacific Ocean under the glare of intense tropical sun receives more solar energy than any other ocean on earth. The trade winds push warmed waters westward and cool waters rise to replace it.
- Every three to seven years the trade winds fail to pick up in summer.
- Warming of eastern Pacific is called El Nino. When eastern Pacific waters become cold, it is called la Nina
- El Nino causes droughts over AUS and INDO. Weakens summer monsoon rains and causes heavy rainfall and flooding.
- It affects frequency and paths of storms, lowering probability of hurricanes in the Atlantic but increasing cyclone chance in Pacific
Author SUmmary
This article is about how monsoons cause intense heat during the summer, but eventually causes heavy rainfall that is much needed in places like central Africa and Asia. One last thing mentioned was the warming of the eastern Pacific called El Nino. It causes droughts over Australia and Indonesia. It weakens summer monsoons and causes heavy rainfall and flooding. This El Nino can cause dire consequences for society and the economy. The message in the article was that if you want to predict the weather, you have to have a weatherman and an oceanographer with you because these two jobs account for the atmosphere and the ocean, which contributes to the weather.
My summary
This article is really interesting to me because i didnt know you can tell the weather by the ocean and the atmosphere. this help us because people can predict how the weather will be like in the future by just studying the ocean and the atmosphere. We can monitor and see if any bad hurricanes or storms are coming and we can get ready for it.