...exist throughout the world. This diversity in climates results in a wide range of weather conditions; from relatively calm weather to dangerously violent storms. Despite the great variation in weather patterns among the world’s many climates, tornadoes are one weather phenomenon that have been known to occur in almost every climate on Earth. Because a tornado is one of the world’s most deadly forces of nature, it is important for humans to strive to understand what tornadoes are, how they are formed, their potential dangers, and how to better predict the formation of tornadoes so that effective warnings can be issued. In order to completely understand the dangers of tornadoes, it is important to examine the current explanations for how and why tornadoes form. Tornadoes are most often generated by supercell storms. Supercell storms are particularly large, severe storms that develop in highly unstable environments in which cool, dry air lies above warm, moist air. Supercells typically form in the United States during the Spring as warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico flows north and comes in contact with cooler, dryer layers of air. The Midwestern section of the United States tends to be the location for the majority of the country’s tornadoes. Because of this, the area from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, spanning over one thousand miles wide, is referred to as “tornado alley”. Although the number of tornadoes reported in the United States each year may seem rather high...
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...The Life and Contributions of Carl Gustaf Rossby Meteorologist and Pioneer in Atmospheric Dynamics ABSTRACT Carl Gustaf Rossby, a Swedish born mathematical physicist and later meteorologist is among the greatest contributors to modern-day meteorology. It was through his extensive research in the general circulations, that modern day weather forecasting has emerged to what it has become today. Rossby had a well-established career in the geosciences, with a broad educational background. It wasn’t until later in his life did he come to publish his greatest works. Rossby published three works in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s that involve potential vorticity, which would help establish the ground work for his most famous work on Rossby waves. The 1936 paper shows the conservation of potential vorticity in a hydrostatic, shallow fluid state, while the 1938 paper is an extension to the highly stratified hydrostatic flow, this time using isentropic coordinates. The term potential vorticity is actually never used until the 1940 paper where it is introduced. The 1939 work by Rossby is considered by some the most famous work contributed by Rossby, as he explains the semipermanent centers of action which would become the well-known Rossby waves. INTRODUCTION When people think of meteorology, the first names to appear are John Dalton, Gabriel Fahrenheit, William Ferrel, and Anders Celsius. These men are...
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...Argumentative Essay Is global climate change man made? Some would argue that climate changes are just stages of the Earth or doesn’t exist at all. Most would say that with all the people in the world and all the things that they do to Mother Nature that climate change is a man-made problem. In this essay, I’m going to explain both sides of the argument and give some facts about why they think that. First off, I think that climate change is man-made and it is from careless people on the earth that don’t think about the effects of things they do in the long run. We all leave some sort of carbon footprint. With population growing and getting out of control most people don’t realize a lot of the things they do are harmful to the planet. With more people, there is a need for more places to stay. People need homes and land so one of the major factors in climate change is deforestation. Another factor is the burning of fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal. These energy resources are burned for electricity or refined to be used as heating or transportation usages. “Over the past 20 years, nearly three-fourths of human-caused emissions came from the burning of fossil fuels.” These things all have to do with letting too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is one of the major reasons of temperatures getting warmer. “Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by a third since the Industrial Revolution began.” Another factor in climate change is the release...
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...must be in place for the formation of a tornado to take place. Thunderstorms take place when moisture, unstable air masses, and lift are in the right place at the right time. A common misconception about tornadoes is that a tornado will form when "warm moist Gulf air meets cold Canadian air and dry air from the Rockies (Edwards)." Most thunderstorms will form under these conditions, but these conditions alone do not guarantee that a tornado will form. Even with the advanced technology available to meteorologists, much is still unknown about tornadoes, including why they form and what causes one storm to produce a tornado while another does not. All thunderstorms have air called an outflow that surrounds the entire storm system. While some tornadoes die when they become wrapped in this outflow air, the opposite may also occur in which a tornado is spawned as a result of outflow air conditions (Edwards). This unpredictability of tornadoes makes them very difficult for meteorologists to accurately forecast. A thunderstorm requires several ingredients to form: Moisture, unstable air, and lift. Moisture is required for cloud and rain formation. Unstable air is a warm air mass in the atmosphere that rises rapidly and provides lift which may be caused by warm or cold fronts, mountains or the sun’s heat (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Thunderstorms complete a three stage life cycle. The first stage is...
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...and can also produce violent winds. They are violent windstorms that take the form of a vortex, or a rotating column of air. (Thunderstorm Hazards-tornadoes, 2014) In these columns of are the air pressure can drop drastically making it sometimes as much as 10% lower than immediately outside these vortexes. (Lutgens; Tarbuck, 2014, Pg. 461) The much lower pressure in the center of the air column is drawn down and air near the ground then rushes into the tornado from all directions. As the air streams inward it is then spiraled upward around the center core until this air eventually merges the air in the super cell thunderstorm. Maximum winds can sometimes approach 480 kilometers per hour according to Lutgens and Tarbuck. These air columns become visible when they begin to pick...
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...Atmospheric circulation is a very large scale movement of air in which thermal energy is distributed on the surface of the earth. The atmospheric circulation changes from year to year because of several factors. Some of the factors are mid-latitude depression, tropical cells and other random pressure systems. There are two reasons why tropical weather is different from that at higher latitudes. The sun shines more directly on the tropics than on higher latitudes (at least in the average over a year), which makes the tropics warm (Stevens 2011). And, the vertical direction (up, as one stands on the Earth's surface) is perpendicular to the Earth's axis of rotation at the equator, while the axis of rotation and the vertical are the same at the pole; this causes the Earth's rotation to influence the atmospheric circulation more strongly at high latitudes than low (Sobel 2012). Because of these two factors, clouds and rain storms in the tropics can occur more spontaneously compared to those at higher latitudes, where they are more tightly controlled by larger-scale forces in the atmosphere. Because of these differences, clouds and rain are more difficult to forecast in the tropics than at higher latitudes. On the other hand, temperature is easily forecast in the tropics, because it doesn't change much (Sobel 2012). When the temperature is high it tends to make the water disappear in the air minus condensing. The rays form the sun shines brighter in the tropics, especially in...
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...Human Population and Environmental Problems by PAUL R. EHRLICH, Ph.D.(Kansas) Professor of Biology and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, U.S.A. rather small number that are thought of as 'important' forms of wildlife—will have a dramatic negative feedback effect on the capacity of our planet to support human life. This is because, although politicians and laymen tend to focus attention on air pollution and water pollution as the most serious environmental problems, in fact the most devastating of all is the destruction of the life-support systems of our planet. These are the natural ecosystems that provide us with a series of public-service functions without which we cannot persist indefinitely on this Earth—such functions as maintaining the quality of the atmosphere, controlling roughly 99 % of the potential agricultural pests, recycling of our waste products, and many other services that we cannot perform for ourselves (Ehrlich et al., 1973). The third message which I would like to give you is that the time for research as a major approach to the world's problems is long past. If you are trapped in a forest, downwind from a forest fire, and it is raging towards you at ten or more kilometres per hour, you do not immediately convene a committee to study reforestation—you call for water. In human society, calling for water basically consists of promoting political action...
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...behavior can be observed in many natural systems, such as weather and climate. This behavior can be studied through analysis of a chaotic mathematical model, or through analytical techniques such as recurrence plots and Poincare maps. This latter idea is known as sensitive dependence on initial conditions , a circumstance discovered by Edward Lorenz (who is generally credited as the first experimenter in the area of chaos) in the early 1960s. DEFINITION: It is the study of non linear dynamics, in which seemingly random events are actually predictable from simple deterministic equation. Chaos theory concerns deterministic systems whose behavior can in principle be predicted. Chaotic systems are predictable for a while and then appear to become random. The amount of time for which the behavior of a chaotic system can be effectively predicted depends on three things: * How much uncertainty we are willing to tolerate in the forecast? * How accurately we are able to measure its current state? * Which time scale is depending on the dynamics of the system? The two main components of chaos theory are the ideas that systems - no matter how complex they may be - rely upon an underlying order, and that very simple or small systems and events can cause very complex behaviors or events. HISTORY: One of the first scientists to comment on chaos was Henri Poincaré(1854–1912), a late-nineteenth century French mathematician who extensively studied topology and dynamic systems. He...
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...Alvaro Sorto Professor Heather MacLean English ESL 100 26 March 2014 Effects of Love Groundhog Day is a movie about a meteorologist who becomes trapped in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Phil Connors, a sarcastic Philadelphia weatherman who is far too full of himself. He travels with the entourage of cameraman Larry, and his lust interest Rita. Phil lives through the same day, Groundhog's day, repeatedly with no consequences. Being trapped in “Groundhog Day” has three significant effects on Phil’s practice of Eros, Agape and Philia. One effect on Phil being trapped on “Groundhog Day” was practice of Eros. Eros is essentially a passion for another, a desire to have them, to own them. In its sexual form, Eros by itself become fixated on the body alone, not on the person and treats the other as an object for use. Eros is basically all about itself. One effect on Phil practice of Eros is egocentric. Phil was a selfish, vain, fool who only cares about himself. All other people are there for him to use for his pleasure and his status. Phil is Eros out of control. The most obvious example is when Phil becomes to eat, drink and smoke every day. Because he notices that there was no consequence the next day. For him there was no worry of having lung cancer or cholesterol problems. We can see in the movie when Phil goes to the “tip top café” to eat lots of sugar, drink coffee, and even smoke at the same time. Another effect on Phil’s practice of Eros is eroticism. At the beginning uses...
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...study Risk and Emergency Management Case Studies Textbook Development Project Prepared By: George Haddow and Damon Coppola Bullock & Haddow LLC 315 Boyd Ave. Takoma Park, MD 20912 301-270-5554 The purpose of this effort is to develop an Emergency and Risk Management Case Studies Textbook designed to provide a resource for practitioners and students in the crisis, disaster, and risk management disciplines that displays various best practices, lessons learned, and success stories, through in-depth case studies. The result of this effort will be the authorship of a college-level crisis, disaster, and risk management textbook containing numerous real-world case studies of disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery actions. The textbook will be developed in electronic format to support upper division undergraduate college and graduate-level emergency management classes within an emergency management major or certificate program to students who may someday enter an emergency management related profession. The planned book will include the following ten chapters: Chapter 1. Introduction to Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Concepts Chapter 2. Preparedness Chapter 3. Mitigation Chapter 4. Response Chapter 5. Recovery Chapter 6. Communications Chapter 7. Statutory Authority Chapter 8. Business Continuity Planning Chapter 9: International Disaster Management Chapter 10: Future Trends and...
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...Albert Camus Biography Albert Camus was born November 7, 1913, and reared in Algeria, a country exposed to the blistering African sun and the plain by the Mediterranean sea. These roots — the sun and the sea — have spread into all of Camus' writings — the novels, the plays, and the essays. They are a part of his lyricism, his symbolism, and his values. The universe, it seems from his early notebook (Noces), was mother, father, and lover for the young Camus, and from the first, Camus was aware of the paradoxical aspects of his natural world. The sensual free pleasure of swimming and hiking was in continuous contrast to the bare stony earth that made living a matter of poverty and destitution. He was early aware of the absurd condition of humanity's being totally alone in a resplendent universe. This concept is Camus' equivalent of "In the beginning . . ." With this truth, all of his writings sound revolt, for he refused to be deceived by social, religious, or individual submissions that ignored or defied the irreducible truth that humanity alone is responsible for itself, its meaning, and its measure. Camus' writings are a testament to a continuing belief in humanity's exiled but noble condition. Lucien Camus, Albert's father, was killed in 1914, during World War I's Battle of the Marne, and the year-old child was reared by his deaf mother. She had little money and was apparently a rather joyless and boring companion for her son. It is little wonder that he spent much of his...
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...Arguments against anthropogenic climate change. • The temperature recordings are unreliable. • Global warming or climate change has become politicized which has closed down the debate on whether or not climate change is anthropogenic, in other words it creates a wealth of money that forces scientists to conform or lose their jobs. Those who believe that the change within the climate has no correlation with human activity have an abundant supply of never ending answers as to why climate change is not induced by mankind. One such argument that skeptics propose is that the temperature recordings that have been collected over the past century and even longer are inaccurate due to 9 out of every 10 weather stations failing to comply to their own...
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...or miles). A quick way to measure distance is to count each square you cross on the map. Understanding Scale It wouldn't be possible for maps to show things the size they are in real life, so maps make things smaller using scale. Drawing something to scale means showing it at a different size to what it is in real life. When maps are drawn to scale things are made many times smaller than they really are. Because maps are important to a lot of people, this process has to be very accurate. Every map has its scale printed on the front. It is usually written like this: 1:25 000. This means that 1 unit of measurement on the map (a centimetre, for example) represents 25 000 of those same units on the actual ground the map covers. Why do maps have different scales? Maps are sometimes called large or small scale. Large-Scale maps — These are...
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...natural disasters occurring all over the world. It is thought that because of the frequency and increase in severity of hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tornadoes that the United States alone experiences an average loss of one billion dollars every week. (C. McMillan, 1998) Therefore it is obvious why a procedure of disaster preparedness, mitigation, management, and prevention is highly important as a method of dealing with such events. Risk management involves addressing any phenomena that could potentially cause havoc in a community. (C. McMillan, 1998) It is significantly different from traditional preparedness and response activities. A traditional approach attempts to address existing problems, while hazard risk management “focuses more on anticipating problems by ensuring that growth and development address the likelihood of hazards and their interaction with environmental systems.” Whereas traditional preparedness and response mechanisms often focus on individual hazard events, risk management views hazard exposure as an ongoing process and aims at reducing the vulnerability of the society and the economy to natural disasters. Such an approach needs to become an integral part of economic planning and policy making. Disaster prevention involves long term studies of the earth and its processes, and using various scientific fields to monitor and attempt to predict when the next disaster will occur. In recent years, Space Technology has played an important role in...
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...Software Factory, Futurist. An Initial Assessment of Program Executive Office – Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS) Operational and Strategic Initiatives Executive Summary Playing the role as arriving Program Executive Officer for Enterprise Information Systems and acting as my own Chief Information Officer the following bullets summarize the recommendations that the organization is asked to consider: * Focus on the current PEO-EIS business objections concentrating on operational requirements during the current situation which limits fiscal resources. * Deliver systems that are easy to operate and cost effective to sustain. * At all organizational levels look for ways to exploit emerging technologies. We need to become at least as proficient in using identified technology trends as the local...
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