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Chapter 20: An Envelope of Gas: Earth’s Atmosphere and Climate

Geotours

Download Geotours.

Getting Started :

If you haven’t done it already, download Google Earth™ and install it on your computer.
If you haven’t done it already, download the Geotours.kmz file and save a copy to your desktop. (The Geotours.kmz file contains the Geotours for all chapters, so you only need to download this once!)
By downloading Geotours.kmz you acknowledge that it was created solely to accompany Steve Marshak's Earth: Portrait of a Planet and Essentials of Geology and is limited to use with only Steve Marshak's Earth: Portrait of a Planet and Essentials of Geology and may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means for any other purpose without the written permission of the publisher.
Double-click the Geotours.kmz file and Google Earth™ will open automatically.
In the left-hand sidebar you will see a Places menu, and in the Temporary Places folder you will see an EARTH_3e.kmz file. Double-click the file and you will see a list of Geotours for each chapter.
Then open the Geotour folder you want to explore! If you’d like to read more about the features of Geotours see Using Geotours, or go to our Helpful Resources section.

STOPS ON GEOTOUR 20: Climate Belts of the Earth

Worksheet Bonus: World Map of the Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification
30^°S: Subtropical Desert, South Africa

See also Worksheet Problem 1

10^°S: Transitional Tropical, Angola

See also Worksheet Problem 2

0^°: Tropical, Congo

See also Worksheet Problem 3

10^°N: Transitional Tropical, Southern Chad

See also Worksheet Problem 4

24^°N: Subtropical Desert, Libya

See also Worksheet Problem 5

40^°N: Temperate, Albania

See also Worksheet Problem 6

50^°N: Temperate, Poland

See also Worksheet Problem 7

70^°N: Transitional Polar, Norway

See also Worksheet Problem 8

80^°N: Polar, Greenland

See also Worksheet Problem 9
"What a Geologist Sees" Geofeatures: U-shaped Valley, Ice Field, 2 Cirques, Fjord with Sea Ice and Valley Glacier

Problem Bonus: See also Worksheet Problems 10-11

GEOTOUR 20 WORKSHEET

This Geotour worksheet works differently from the others. Its purpose is to familiarize you with different climate belts as defined by the Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification. Of course you are not expected to memorize all the different categories in this classification. Rather, your goal should be to learn how the classification works, to see the regional extent of different climate belts, and to experience a landscape typical of each belt. To begin, double-click the World Map of the Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification folder within the Worksheet 20 folder. The map will appear on the Google Earth^TM globe; each colored area indicates a specific climate belt. Then, click on the placemarks for all the problems. The placemarks show the position of the different images in Geotour 20.

Part I—Identifying Classification Abbreviations: For each example in Geotour 20, specify the appropriate climate type letter designation using the World Map of the Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification (expand the folder to see the letter designations). To do this, simply match the color on the map to the color on the map key. Then, use the transparency slider to fade the colored map overlay so that the Google Earth^TM images of the landscape below are visible. The exercise works well if you view placemarks from an elevation of about 3,500 km. From this elevation, you can see the extent of the belts.

30°S: Subtropical Desert, South Africa
1. Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification designation

10°S: Transitional Tropical, Angola
2. Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification designation

0°: Tropical, Congo
3. Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification designation

10°N: Transitional Tropical, Southern Chad
4. Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification designation

24°N: Subtropical Desert, Libya
5. Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification designation

40°N: Temperate, Albania
6. Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification designation

50°N: Temperate, Poland
7. Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification designation

70°N: Transitional Polar, Norway
8. Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification designation

80°N: Polar, Greenland
9. Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification designation

Part II—Interpreting the Classification Abbreviations: The classification divides climate into six major categories (reflecting average monthly rainfall, average monthly temperature, and average annual precipitation, among other factors). Each major category is further divided into several subcategories, for a total of twenty-four. You can decipher the meaning of a category’s abbreviation by using the following translations:

• The first letter of the classification scheme indicates one of these six categories:
A = tropical humid (equatorial)
B = dry (arid)
C= mild mid-latitude (warm temperate)
D = severe mid-latitude (snowy winters)
E = polar
H = highland

• The second letter in the name indicates the character of precipitation.
W= desert
S = steppe
f = fully humid
s = dry summer
w = dry winter
m = monsoonal

• The third letter indicates aspects of the temperature.
h = hot arid
k = cold arid
a = hot summer
b = warm summer
d = extremely continental
F = polar frost
T = polar tundra

With this in mind, translate the abbreviation of the Köppen-Geiger classification name for:

Problem 1:

Problem 3:

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StudySpace: Chemistry 2e.