Climate

·  Learning Objectives

o  Differentiate between weather and climate.

o  Identify the factors that influence climate.

I.  Weather or Climate?

a.  Is a hurricane an instance of weather or climate?

i.  ______

b.  Is “hurricane season” a description of weather or climate?

i.  ______

c.  ______: short-term changes in atmospheric conditions

d.  ______: long-term patterns of weather over many years

e.  Atmospheric conditions include

i.  ______

ii.  ______

iii.  ______

iv.  ______

v.  ______

vi.  ______

f.  Weather can change ______and can be ______to predict. It may be sunny in the morning but rainy in the afternoon. Climate is more ______

II.  Factors That Affect Climate

a.  ______

b.  ______trapped in ______

c.  Transport of ______and ______

i.  by winds and ocean currents

d.  ______features such as

i.  ______

ii.  ______

iii.  ______

e. 

III.  The Greenhouse Effect

a.  Energy enters as ______.

  1. Much of the energy is trapped as ______.
  2. Smaller amount of energy passes ______walls.
  3. Why do people use greenhouses?
  4. ______
  5. Warmer conditions created within the greenhouse make it possible for many plants to survive when and where the natural climate conditions are too ______
  1. The Greenhouse Effect on Earth
  2. Earth’s average ______is determined by the balance between the amount of ______that stays in the biosphere and the amount lost to ______
  4. Earth receives ______from sunlight. Some of that energy is ______into space, and some is ______and converted into ______. Some heat, in turn, radiates into ______, and some is trapped within the ______.
  5. This balance is largely controlled by the concentrations of three different ______in the atmospher
  6. ______
  7. ______
  8. ______
  1. Latitude and Solar Energy
  2. Earth’s climate zones are produced by ______distribution of the sun’s heat on Earth’s surface.
  3. Polar regions receive ______solar energy per unit area, and therefore less ______, than tropical regions do. The tilt of Earth’s ______causes the distribution of sunlight to change over the course of the year.

  1. Earth’s Winds
  2. unequal distribution of heat between the ______and the ______creates ______. This distribution is made possible in large part because of the differences in ______between ______air and ______air.
  4. Air that is heated in a warm area ______, becomes less dense, and ______
  5. As this air rises, it spreads ______and ______, losing heat along the way.
  6. As that air cools, it becomes more ______and ______.
  7. At the same time, cold air over the poles also ______
  8. These movements together create several cells of air that rise, travel north or south, then sink toward Earth’s surface, warm, and rise again.
  9. Between places where air sinks and places where it rises, air travels over Earth’s surface, creating ______, as shown in the diagram here.
  10. Earth’s rotation causes winds to blow from ______to ______over the temperate zones and from ______to ______over the tropics and the poles.
  1. Ocean Currents
  3. Cold water near the poles sinks and flows along the ocean ______.
  4. This water rises in a few places through a process called ______.
  5. Surface water is also pushed by winds, creating surface currents that transport enormous amounts of ______.
  6. Air that passes over warm surface currents picks up ______and ______
  7. Air that passes over cool surface currents is cooled. In this way, winds and surface currents affect important external environmental factors, such as
  8. ______
  9. ______, of air above them.
  10. These interactions shape weather and climate on land areas near oceans.