17. Seasons and Climate

The Atmosphere, the Ocean and Environmental Change (GG 140)

There are several factors that impact climate on Earth. Different areas on Earth have different climates depending on factors such as their latitude and surrounding terrain. Maps of annual average precipitation illustrate these variations in climate. Continentality also affects climate based on the ability to change temperatures on land versus in the oceans and also the imbalance of land mass between the northern and southern hemispheres. Seasonality is a dominant factor in climate. It is controlled by the amount of solar insolation received at the Earth's surface, which varies in time due to the tilt of the Earth's rotation axis.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Climate Definition
02:55 - Chapter 2. Latitudinal Climate Variations
14:10 - Chapter 3. Orographic Precipitation
20:18 - Chapter 4. Continentality
26:39 - Chapter 5. Ocean Currents and Climate
28:39 - Chapter 6. Biome
30:13 - Chapter 7. Seasonality
31:46 - Chapter 8. Effects of the Earth's Rotation around the Sun
46:32 - Chapter 9. Seasonal Zone Shifts

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://oyc.yale.edu

This course was recorded in Fall 2011.