Exploring Ecosystems: Tropical Rainforest Diversity | California Academy of Sciences

Describing Landscapes

1. Describing these landscapes
2. What difference can you see between them?
3. Why are the landscapes so different?
4. What difficulties would there be for people living in these environments?
5. What are the names of these landscapes.
6. Where are they in the world?
7. Would you like to live in them?

Talk and explain  to Katy and send me the answers of these activities by E-mail

Amazonia

Vocabulary .Unit 5

Homework:

• You have to explain the meaning of these words  in english;

You need to know these words and their meanings for the next exam. I´m going to ask you.

Rainforest Canopy Dunes Sandy desert Rocky desert Stony desert Tuaregs Mongols Mediterranean landscapes Desert landscapes Taiga Tundra Alpine Landscapes

Savannah Grassland Emergent tree Polar landscapes Oceanic landscapes Mountain landscapes Continental landscapes Meadows Deciduous forest Coniferous forest Steppes Prairies

Climate graphs: Skills pod animation from GCSE Geography Kerboodle

Climate graphs

To work in class and at home.
It is necessary make these  climate graphs and explain them.

Analyse the climate graphs.

1. What are temperatures like? Analyse: What is it the maximum-minimum temperature, the averages of temperatures, the difference between the highest and the lowest temperatures (Temperature range).

2.  And precipitation? The total  rain, when occur, number ot months with rain and without aridity?

3. What type of climate is shown?
4. Which vegetation is characteristic of this climate?

How do tornadoes form?

Interpreting a weather map

Today's weather forecast map for Europe

Metereologits make weather maps with data sent by satellites. A weather map usually includes information about atmospheric pressure at sea level.

• Isobars are the lines connecting points of equal pressure
• The H indicates high pressure
• The L indicates low pressure
• Fronts are drawn with jagged line
• Winds sometimes are represented by arrow.
• The closer the isobars are to each other, the stronger the wind are.

TASK
Explain what the following represent.

• The lines
• the letters H and L
• The jagged lines

Describe what the weather will be like

• In hight pressure areas
• In low pressure areas
• In areas affected by a front

Link:

• How to read a weather map?

How to read a synoptic chart

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After the video make a brief summary. Send me your ideas

Vocabulary. Unit 4

Weather: It refers to the state of the atmosphere in a place at a specific time.

Climate: It refers to the state of the atmosphere in a place over a long period of time.

Weather station: The place where it studies the weather and climate.

Axis: It is the point where the Earth rotates.

Orbits: It is the way that follows the Earth in her revolution around the Sun.

Cold zone: It is the zone whithin the polar circle. In this area, the temperatures are always cold.

Latitude: It consists that the areas near the Equator rain more than the other areas.

Altitude:It consists that it rains more in high areas than in low areas.

Inland climates: It is a climate which is much hotter in summer and much colder in winter.

Humidity: It is amount of water vapor in the air.

Anticyclones: It is areas with a high pressure.

Depressions: It is areas with a low pressure.

Anticlockwise: It is the opposite sense to the clock wise.

Average temperature: It is the average of the temperatures in an area.

Maximum temperature: It is the highest temperature of an area.

Minimum temperature: It is the lowest temperature in an area.

Jet Stream: It is a wind that blows from east to west and it is found in the temperate zones.

Global wind patterns: It is the group of every winds on the Earth.

Doldrums: It is a place where the wind don't blow

Sea breeze: It is a type of synoptic winds which is blowing from the sea towards the land by day.

Rotation: It is when the Earth spins on a imaginary straight line called axis.

Revolution around the Sun: It is the movement of the Earth around the Sun. That produces the year and the seasons.

Equinoxes: It is the moment that mark the beginning of Autumn and spring

Solstices: It is the moment that mark the beginning of winter and summer.

Thermometer: It is the tool necessary to measured the temperature.

Hot zone:It is the zone where the Sun's rays reach the earth in perpendicular angle all year round, so temperatures are always high.

Temperate zone: It is the zone between the tropics and polar circle. In this area the temperatures are temperate.

Precipitation:It is droplets that fall on the Earth's surface.

Convectional rain: This is a type of rainfall characteristic of hot climates.

Orographic/ Relief rain: This is a type of rainfall characteristic of mountains regions.

Frontal rain: This is a type of rainfall takes place at the boundary, between a mass of warm air and a mass of cold air.

Front: It is the boundary between different air masses.

Atmospheric pressure: It is the force exerted at a specific point on the Earth´s surface by the weight of the air above it.

Prevailing winds: These winds always blow in the same direction.

Periodic winds: These winds change direction seasonally.

Seasons:Different moments around the year when temperatures and rainfalls change. It are produced with the orbit of the Earth.

Synoptic winds: These winds change daily.

Trade wind: These are winds influenced by the surrounding geography.

Water vapor: It is the water evaporated.

Land breeze: It is a type of breeze given in the land.

Wind

Read with Franky
What is wind?
Wind is air in motion. It is produced by the uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun. Since the earth’s surface is made of various land and water formations, it absorbs the sun’s radiation unevenly. Two factors are necessary to specify wind: speed and direction
What causes the wind to blow?
As the sun warms the Earth's surface, the atmosphere warms too. Some parts of the Earth receive direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Other places receive indirect rays, so the climate is colder. Warm air, which weighs less than cold air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind blow.
What is the jet stream?
The jet stream is a fast flowing, river of air found in the atmosphere at around 12 km above the surface of the Earth just under the tropopause. They form at the boundaries of adjacent air masses with significant differences in temperature, such as of the polar region and the warmer air to the south. Because of the effect of the Earth's rotation the streams flow west to east, propagating in a serpentine or wave-like manner at lower speeds than that of the actual wind within the flow.
What are the global wind patterns?
The equator receives the Sun's direct rays. Here, air is heated and rises, leaving low pressure areas behind. Moving to about thirty degrees north and south of the equator, the warm air from the equator begins to cool and sink. Between thirty degrees latitude and the equator, most of the cooling sinking air moves back to the equator. The rest of the air flows toward the poles.What are the trade winds?
The trade winds are just air movements toward the equator. They are warm, steady breezes that blow almost continuously. The Coriolis Effect makes the trade winds appear to be curving to the west, whether they are traveling to the equator from the south or north.
What are the doldrums?
The doldrums is an area of calm weather. The trade winds coming from the south and the north meet near the equator. These converging trade winds produce general upward winds as they are heated, so there are no steady surface winds.
What are the prevailing westerlies?
Between thirty and sixty degrees latitude, the winds that move toward the poles appear to curve to the east. Because winds are named from the direction in which they originate, these winds are called prevailing westerlies. Prevailing westerlies in the Northern Hemisphere are responsible for many of the weather movements across the United States and Canada.What is a sea breeze?
On a warm summer day along the coast, this differential heating of land and sea leads to the development of local winds called sea breezes. As air above the land surface is heated by radiation from the Sun, it expands and begins to rise, being lighter than the surrounding air. To replace the rising air, cooler air is drawn in from above the surface of the sea. This is the sea breeze, and can offer a pleasant cooling influence on hot summer afternoons.What is a land breeze?
A land breeze occurs at night when the land cools faster than the sea. In this case, it is air above the warmer surface water that is heated and rises, pulling in air from the cooler land surface.
To Know more....

Task: After reading, make the summary of the main ideas