Earths Major systems

The geosphere is the solid earth that includes continental and the ocean crust as well as the multiple layers of the earth's interior. Ninety four percent of the earth is composed of the elements oxygen, iron, silica, and magnesium, and the interior of the earth is layered both chemically and mechanically. The geosphere is not static, but its surface is in a constant state of motion that gives rise to movement of the continents. This explains the theory of the continental drifts. The atmosphere is the gaseous envelope that surrounds the earth and constitutes the transition between its surface and the vacuum of space. The atmosphere consists of a mixture of gases composed primarily of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. It extends 500 km above the surface of the earth and the lower level which is the troposphere and constitutes the climate system that maintains the conditions suitable for life on the planet's surface. The next atmospheric level, the stratosphere which contains the ozone layer, aids in filtering out the bad U.V. rays that come from the sun. Since the Industrial Revolution, we have been depleting the ozone layer with all of the fossil fuel that we have been burning. We have now started to worry about all the damage that we have put on the ozone layer. By us doing this there has been rising concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chloroflurocarbons in the atmosphere because these gases trap heat energy emitted from the earth surface and increase global temperatures. In addition, chloroflurocarbons are effective at depleting the Earth's ozone shield that protects the earth surface from the harmful effects of U.V. rays. And this is one very good example of how all the air pollution can hurt and deplete our atmosphere.

The hydrosphere is the make-up of all the water on the earth. The earth is made up of 71% water and only 29% is land, The earth is the only planet in our solar system that is able to have water on it. Because it has just the right mass and the right chemical composition, the right atmosphere, and is the right distance from the sun. When the coral reef gets destroyed little by little it is actually killing off many animals. Many need these coral reefs to stay alive and to exist here. So the hydrosphere does bring many advantages to our planet, and the biggest one is water.The biosphere is the life zone of the Earth and includes all living organisms, including man, and all organic matter that has not yet decomposed. The biosphere is structured into a hierarchy known as the food chain whereby all life is dependent upon the first tier. Energy and mass is transferred from one level of the food chain to the next with an efficiency of about 10%. All organisms are intrinsically linked to their physical environment and the relationship between an organism and its environment is the study of ecology. The biosphere is divided into ecosystems that represent the interactions between a group of organisms.









The Atmosphere





Biosphere






I got my information from:
http://ess.geology.ufl.edu/ess/Introduction/Biosphere.html

Tonado Final

Tornados

Tornados are rotating columns of air that extend from a thunderstorm to the ground. They can vary in size from just a few meters all the way up to a kilometer wide where it touches the ground. In the southern hemisphere the winds rotate clockwise, and in the northern hemisphere, the winds rotate counter-clockwise. They form from a thunderstorm when cool air prevails over a layer of warm air and forces the warm air to rise rapidly. Tornadoes develop inside a low-pressure area that has high winds. The center vortex of the tornado is a very low-pressure area. As more air comes in, the pressure lowers, which cools the air down. The air cooling helps condense the water vapor that is in the air, and form the tornado into the funnel shaped column that you see tornados to be. When the tornado hits the ground it picks up debri and dirt which makes it the color that it gets. If a tornado were to pick up red dirt then the tornado would turn red. Tornados wipe out anything in there path because of their ability to have windspeeds of more than 300 miles per hour. Most of the damage that is inflicted by a tornado is because of its very high wind speeds. Tornados are often located next to an updraft, which is air that is coming down from a thunderstorm. A slight hint that might tell somebody that a tornado is coming would be like a sudden burst of heavy rain or hail because that is where updrafts are. The peak of the tornado season in the southern states ranges between March to May and in the northern states most of the tornados happen in the summer months. They are most likely to happen in the afternoon’s and the evenings between noon and midnight. When tornados develop over the water they are called water spouts. Tornados are classified into three categories weak, strong and violent. Out of all the tornados that occur year round only two percent are classified as violent. While 3 out of ten are classified to be strong and 7 out of ten which is what most tornados are called to be weak.
The Doppler radar is used to predict tornadoes these days. The Doppler radar measures how fast an object is moving towards or away form a center point. The Doppler radar is programmed to measure wind speed in storms. The Doppler radar can also analyze a super cell to see if there is any circulation going on. But in April 1995 NASA developed a new satellite with a Optical Transient Detector which is referred to as OTD. Using new optics and electronics OTD can see quick lightning flashes even during the day. The biggest advantage of OTD is that it takes only one minute to do a full scan of a tornado and the current Doppler radar takes five minutes to do all of this. Warnings are then posted either on the radio stations or the television. They are either issued as tornado warnings or tornado watches. The differences between the two is that a tornado watch means that there is a tornado that has touched down somewhere in the area and to watch out for it. And a tornado warning means that there is a good possibility that a tornado could form anywhere so you need to watch out for it.


I got my information from the website
http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/01027/tornado.html

Weather Chart

When i was filling out my chart for the three weeks of weather i thought that the weather would pretty much stay the same. But as i found out the weather jumped around quite a bit from cold to warm and from warm to cold again. I also learned that when i was in Jamaica over spring break it had a tendency to rain more because it was so hot all the moisture would go up into the clouds and create precipitation, which would then cause it to rain. But back here it did not happen that way.

Tornado effects

Tornados occur mostly in the United States during the spring and summer months. They are very deadly and they create many injurys each year. Tornados happen more frequently in certain places than others. There are 800 reporting of tornados on an average year round basis. Tornados are made up of violent rotating air thatt stretches from a thunderstorm to the ground. They are very capable of getting winds that exceed 250 miles per hour.

April Fools

The reason that we could say that mother nature is playing an April fools joke on us is because you can never tell when it is gonna be either cold or warmer outside. For instances it will warm up one day and then the next day it will be cold and we would be getting 8 inches of snow. The jet stream is a big reason why the weather has been so weird lately. There are two jet streams and one runs from Calufornia and through the southwest and up towards the east coast. And the second jet stream goes through North and South Dakota and may go through Michigan if one delays the other one and forces it to go up in to Michigan which gives us mixed weather. The great lakes alos have a huge effect on our weather and weather patterns. We get alot of lake effect snow from the lakes and that is caused by high precipitation in the clouds as they come across the lake.

Weather Maps

Today i learned how to read wether maps and to be able to differentiate what the signs coming across the maps mean. I learned what a warm front and a cold front looks like coming across a maps also. I learned how winds and temperature helps to differentiate the weather patterns. And what the dew point is.

What I've learned

I learned that soil heats up the fastest but when it comes to cooling the water will cool the fastsest. I also learned that when you have extreme temperature changes from one thing to another then you get a tornado. You need alot of energy though in order to get a tornado to develop.