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Page Title:
Unit 9 - Lesson 1 - General aspects of tropical analysis |
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Click here to Order your Radar Equipment Online UNIT 9LESSON 1 GENERAL ASPECTS OF TROPICAL ANALYSIS OVERVIEW Recognize the general
principles of tropical analysis.
OUTLINE Weather differences within the tropics Weather element representativeness GENERAL ASPECTS OF
TROPICAL ANALYSIS When you examine the weather of the tropics,
one thing stands outthe heat. As Earth orbits
around the Sun, the Suns most direct rays shift
northward and southward between 23 1/2N and
23 1/2S. The heat that accompanies these
latitudinal shifts lags behind the Sun by 1 to 2
months. This is borne out by the fact that in the midlatitudes, July and August temperatures are
warmer than those of June (month of the summer
solstice) and January and February temperatures
are colder than those of December (month of the
winter solstice). This effect is not nearly as
evident in the tropics. The tropics remain warm
throughout the year. Even when the Suns heaviest
concentration of rays is over the Southern
Hemisphere (winter in the Northern Hemisphere)
the Northern Hemisphere tropical latitudes remain
hot. The Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn
are geographical boundaries assigned to the
tropics based on Earths position in relation
to the Sun. Another set of tropical latitude
boundaries, 30N and 30S, were assigned based
on the tri-cellular theory that we discussed earlier.
Latitude boundaries permit easy reference, but
you must remember that tropical air is not
confined to tropical latitudes, just as polar air is
not confined to polar latitudes. For the most part,
as far as weather is concerned, these boundaries
are simply borders that are crossed with great
regularity. In reality, the tropical weather belt
expands and contracts as it moves north and south
following the Sun. It is wider over continents than
over the oceans. Since there are no specific latitude
boundaries assigned in tropical meteorology,
another set of dividing lines is used. We use
the winds of the middle troposphere. More
specifically, the poleward boundaries are roughly
where the tropical easterly winds of the mid-troposphere
give way to the midlatitude westerlies. Learning Objective: Recognize the tropics, the representativeness of weather elements, and what drives our approach in analyzing the weather over this region. |
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