Earth weather and climate Year 1/ # 1 May 15 / 2012 www.issuu.com/ WeatherandclimateSE8E
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Table of Contents 3. Editorial 4. Weather vs. Climate 5. How does the atmosphere affect the climate? 6. How does temperature affect climate? 7. How does precipitation affect climate? 8. Effects of clouds on weather and climate 9. Cloud types - photos 10. Cloud types - photos 11. Human impact on climate 12. Acknowledgments
Staff Director: Sebastian Eljuri Editors: Sebastian Eljuri, Pedro Eljuri, Santiago Eljuri, Jose Eljuri and Jose Maria Eljuri Design and layout: Taxo Design
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Editorial
In our first edition we want to present to our readers weather and climate of Earth and how people are destroying it. In this magazine we will be talking about what is occurring to the Earth. We think that is important to notify our readers what is happening on the planet that they live on. We think that it is important for people to know what is happening with the Earths weather, climate, atmosphere, precipitation, temperature, clouds, ozone layer and climate changes because of human civilization. Our staff has put a lot of effort into creating this magazine with the most new and up-to-date information. We hope that our readers have a good time while reading Weather and Climate magazine! By: Sebastian Eljuri
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Weather vs. Climate
Almost all the people believe that weather and climate have the same significance. Some of them say that climate and weather is when people undergo a commotion of cold temperature or hot temperature. In fact weather and climate are two terms of meteorology, but they are very different between each other. Weather is the day by day condition of the atmosphere in short time variation. Weather can obtain the measure of temperature by minutes to weeks. Climate is defined as weather information that describes the difference of weather at a particular position for a specific time. Climate is what people are expecting in the weather to occur, while weather is what the climate is truly going to be. Another of the main differences among climate and weather is that climate studies climatology, while weather studies meteorology. A lot of things might happen between weather and climate. In weather things such as: precipitation, temperature and wind could occur. Instead, in climate rain, storms, flooding and snow could happen. A lot of organizations like NASA, NOAA, EPA, CPC and CAC stay in touch with weather and climate. By: Pedro Eljuri
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How the atmosphere affects the climate?
The atmosphere affects all the things that exist in our surroundings. It can affect also, climate and weather in a variety of ways. As earth is always radiating energy at infrared wavelengths, rays that are released can affect drastically the earth’s climate. Water vapor and carbon dioxide soak up, and can emit infrared rays in all directions. Heat modifies the earth’s surface, causing a huge effect over the climate. Gasses act as an isolated layer of lower atmosphere. Water vapor is the most present greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, which could cause devastation in earth’s climate. Without these destructive gasses, the earth’s temperature would be very balanced. As greenhouse gases exist the stable temperature in earth is around 59 Fahrenheit. Greenhouse gasses keep our planet warm and protect us from direct effects of sun radiation. Without this gasses earth couldn’t maintain life. As we can see this greenhouse gases that infrared rays emit, are very destructive and can change the temperature of climate in earth. By: Santiago Eljuri
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How temperature affects climate?
Temperature, is constantly affecting climate, people and earth. It is disturbing, people in activities they do, whether there is a cold or hot temperature in a specific day. Sun causes weather because it heats the earth and the atmosphere. All changes in weather come from the sun. Temperature can also affect bodies of water, and their climate. When precipitation occurs in a body of water, it will grow increasingly, depending on the amount of water that have fall from clouds. In rivers, precipitation can cause a lot of problems because water could grow meters up, and then floods could occur. People who live near the water will experience different types of breezes, and they are also exposed from water entering their properties. In a lot of countries farmers have pieces of land near the water for feeding their vegetations. It is cheaper getting the water for a body of water than use a hosepipe. Temperature affects the climate in a lot of ways, but stopping what the temperature would be in a specific day is impossible. By: Jose Eljuri
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How precipitation affects climate?
Precipitation is the amount of rain that has fallen at a given place within a given period. Precipitation could be measured in centimeters. It affects climate, persons and also the earth. It can mainly affect human by don’t allowing them do activities because of the climate. Sometimes, when it’s raining, some light post can damage, and that means that people don’t have electricity. People, while driving in the highway are terrified because the way, when it rains, turns into soap. Precipitation could also affect the earth when the water collects wastes and move them to another place, it pollutes more the earth. The amount of precipitation is a gauge of climate change that people experience nowadays. When precipitation occurs, rain falls down and evaporates. As the ozone layer is thicker, the rain doesn’t escape as particles. They are five types of precipitation: rain, hail, freezing rain, sleet and snow. Rain is the type of precipitation that happens frequently. It occurs when tiny cloud droplets collide to form bigger droplets. Then the droplet begins to fall from the sky. Hail is a precipitation that is found in very intense thunderstorms. Hail is seen when the air surface is below freezing. When hail occurs, small balls of ice will fall from the sky. Freezing rain is the dangerous type of precipitation. Freezing rain occurs when there is a shallow layer of air at a surface that is below freezing, followed by a layer of above freezing air above it. Sleet is frozen raindrops. Sleet occurs when there is a warm layer of air above a relatively deep sub-freezing layer at the surface. Sleet usually does not last long and it happens at winter months. Snow occurs when the layer of the atmosphere from the surface of the earth through the cloud is entirely below freezing. This precipitation falls from the cloud as snow and does not melt at all while falling to the ground. A region climate is determined by natural and human made factors. Changes in one of these factors can cause local, regional and global changes in climate. These are the main factors that the fall of water affects the environment. By: Andres Eljuri 7|Page
Effect of clouds on weather and climate
Clouds are very important in the earth, as they carry the rain that falls from the sky. Clouds are mainly seen as, grayish or white color and they appear in different forms, depending in many things. It exist six types of clouds in our earth’s surface. They are divided in: high clouds, middle clouds, low clouds, clouds with vertical growth, unusual clouds and contrails. High clouds, as it remarks its name, are the clouds that are from 5000 to 13000 meters. One of the main distinctiveness of this type is that they appear mainly in winter. Middle clouds, are from 2000 to 7000 meters. The main characteristic of this type of cloud is that the main colors of the cloud are white and gray. Low clouds are from the earth surface to 2000 meters. The main characteristic of this clouds are that they can cover almost all the sky. These are the most important clouds and the often viewed in the earth’s skies. Clouds with vertical growth start at the earth’s surface to 13000 meters. This kind divides in two types, Cumulus and Cumulonimbus. Cumulus is puffy clouds that look like floating cotton balls. Cumulonimbus is a cloud that is associated with rains and can grow up to 10 km. Unusual clouds, are clouds that are not seen frequently. This type divides in three clouds: Lenticular, Kelvin- Helmholtz and Mammatus. Lenticular clouds, form in downwind side of a mountain. Kevin- Helmholtz clouds, look like breaking waves in the ocean, while Mammatus are pouches of clouds. Contrails is what planes get out of it, they are formed with water vapor. One of the main effects of clouds in climate is that their shade cools the earth and their water vapor store heat from the sun. This could make the weather cool down, as the clouds keep moving in the skies. By: Sebastian Eljuri 8|Page
Cloud types photos
High clouds
Middle clouds
Low clouds
Vertical growth clouds
Cumulus
Cumulonimbus
Unusual clouds 9|Page
Lenticular clouds
Kelvin- Helmholtz
Mammatus clouds
Contrails
Strange cloud 10 | P a g e
Human impact on climate
Human activities continue to modify the environment. People could seriously damage the earth’s weather and climate. One of the main things that person could pollute, is the emission of green house gasses. Green house gasses are released when people burn fossil fuels, which is a source of energy. The increase of greenhouse gases traps more infrared rays for the sun and, therefore it increases earth temperature. Atmosphere depends on a balance of gases. The impact of green house gasses is that they pollute all the earth including the atmosphere. The removal of carbon dioxide occurs naturally and has exposure to the atmosphere through human activities. The gasses that industries emit are also polluting earth air and affecting weather and climate daily. Fossil fuels are so important because it works as an energy source, but in 50 years is going to be replaced with new sources of energy that are more advanced and do not pollute the earth. By: Jose Maria Eljuri
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Acknowledgments "NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration." NASA. Web. 08 May 2012. <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaan/climate/climate_weather.html>. "Climate vs Weather." - Difference and Comparison. Web. 08 May 2012. <http://www.diffen.com/difference/Climate_vs_Weather>. "Cloud Types." Cloud Types. Web. 11 May 2012. <http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/clouds/cl oud_types.html>. "How Do Human Activities Affect the Environment?" WikiAnswers. Answers. Web. 11 May 2012. <http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_human_activities_affect_th e_environment>. Apfel, Amelia. "How Are Humans Impacting the Earth's Atmosphere?" EHow. Demand Media, 28 July 2009. Web. 11 May 2012. <http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5232412_humansimpacting-earth_s-atmosphere_.html>. "Geology." Curiosity. Web. 12 May 2012. <http://curiosity.discovery.com/topic/geology/10-reasons-usegeothermal-energy.htm>. "Severe Weather." - Weather Wallpaper (250418). Web. 12 May 2012. <http://www.fanpop.com/spots/weather/images/250418/title/se vere-weather-wallpaper>.
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