Reviving the Lost Art of Naming the World from the New York Times Registration Required

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Reviving the Lost Art of Naming the World from
the New York Times (Registration Required)

• ... Despite the field's now blatant modernity,
  with practitioners using DNA sequences,
  sophisticated evolutionary theory and
  supercomputers to order and name all of life,
  jobs for taxonomists continue to be in steady
  decline.
• Outside taxonomy, no one is much up in arms about
  this, but perhaps we should be, because the
  ordering and naming of life is no esoteric
  science.
• The past few decades have seen a stream of
  studies that show that sorting and naming the
  natural world is a universal, deep-seated and
  fundamental human activity, one we cannot afford
  to lose because it is essential to understanding
  the living world, and our place in it.

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No real Weather!

• Current weather map
• Fronts
• Precipitation
• Temperature departures
• Winds

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GeograffitiM7 EQ Indonesia

• 44 dead, same missing
• 400 injured
• 3,000 buildings destroyed

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Location - predictable

• Tectonic plate boundary
• Indian Ocean under Asia
• Shallow quakes near boundary deep ones well to
  the northeast
• Consequences

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L.A. fires

• Winds (or not)
• Development
• Consequences

2009
2007
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Introduction to Earth

• Where are we?

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ScientificMethod

• Observation
• Hypotheses
• Testing
• Reformulation
• Testing
• Theory
• Testing
• Prediction

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Geosystems

• Dynamic
• Open?
• Closed! (exc. Energy)
• Feedback
• Positive (self-accelerating)
• Negative (self-stabilizing)
• Multiple!

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Earth-centered Reference Systems I

• X - East-West
• Relative to rotation poles
• Measured along the Equator
• Relative to Greenwich Meridian
• Measured in degrees
• Bozeman (P.O.) 111.035ºW
• Also measured in degrees (º), minutes (') and
  seconds (?)
• Bozeman 111º 02 07W
• Defines eastern and western hemispheres
• Longitude

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Reference Systems II

• Y
• North-South
• Relative to rotation poles
• Arbitrarily, North is up
• Measured in degrees
• Bozeman 45.678ºN
• Or Bozeman 45º 40 42N
• Defines northern and southern hemispheres
• Latitude

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Reference Systems III

• Z
• Away from Earths center of gravity
• Up is positive
• Sea Level is arbitrary zero
• Bozeman (P.O.) 4810 (1466 m)
• We could be 6373.46 km above the COG!
• By that measure, the Miss. R. would flow uphill!
• Emphasize arbitrary
• Oblate spheroid
• Changing sea level
• Elevation/Altitude

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The Geographic Grid

• Latitude, Longitude, and Elevation generate a
  unique point in our coordinate space!

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Questions?
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Time and Tide Rotation Orbit

• Time and tide wait for no man. G. Chaucer

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Time and tide, Rotation/Orbit

• Eastward rotation and orbits
• Earth rotates on its axis once/day
• 24 hours, each of 60 minutes, each 60 sec.
• Moon orbits Earth once/27 days
• Earth orbits Sun once/365.25 days
• Eastward motion is (probably) conserved angular
  momentum from the nebular origin of the Solar
  System.

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Time and Tides II - Seasons

• Earths orbit elliptical
• Close (perihelion) January
• Effect minor (but see Glaciation)

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Time and Tides II - Seasons

• Earths orbit elliptical
• Close (perihelion) January
• Effect minor (but see Glaciation)
• Earths rotational axis tilted 23.5º
• Why? Near impact (Moon)?
• Tilted away from Sun winter
• Tilted towards Sun summer
• Seasons reversed in other hemisphere
• Discuss again with glaciers

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Seasons, Tropics, and Circles

• The tilt of the axis leads to six regions
• Two where the sun is directly overhead at some
  time in the year (Tropics),
• Two where the sun never appears at some time in
  the year (and never sets at another time -
  (Polar), and
• Two where neither occurs.

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Time and Tide III - Clocks

• Time is measured relative to solar noon
• Time of highest solar latitude angle above the
  horizon
• If only one time (e.g., Greenwich) bizarre!
• If all local times chaos!
• Therefore Time Zones
• By definition - 15º of arc

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Time and Tide III - Clocks

• Time is measured relative to solar noon
• Time of highest solar latitude angle above the
  horizon
• If only one time (e.g., Greenwich) bizarre!
• If all local times chaos!
• Therefore Time Zones
• By definition - 15º of arc
• In fact arbitrary and political
• Daylight Savings

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Time and Tide III - Clocks

• Time is measured relative to solar noon
• Time of highest solar latitude angle above the
  horizon
• If only one time (e.g., Greenwich) bizarre!
• If all local times chaos!
• Therefore Time Zones
• By definition - 15º of arc
• In fact arbitrary and political
• Daylight Savings

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Local Time

• Local Time differs from solar time
• By longitude
• By convention
• e.g., daylight savings time

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Time and Tide IV - Tides

• Tides
• Discuss again in final week
• Two bulges
• Near oceans pulled from Earth by Moon
• Earth pulled from distant oceans
• Result is two high tides/day

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Time and Tide IV - Tides

• Tides
• Discuss again in final week
• Two bulges
• Near oceans pulled from Earth by Moon
• Earth pulled from distant oceans
• Result is two high tides/day
• Earth tides as well as oceans
• Sun and Moon Max. (min.) _at_ Full/New
• Note effects hurricane damage storm surge!
• Planets (Jupiter) real but tiny

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Lunar eclipse (next Dec 2010)

• Lunar eclipses occur
• Only at full moon
• Only at new moon
• Only at half-moon
• At any phase of the moon

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Maps A special case - Globes

• Globes are perfect!
• Globes are a pain!
• Imagine carrying an atlas in global format
• It would require a moving van!
• Globes are reserved for special uses where the
  spheroid is required.
• Tilt and seasons
• Relative clock time

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What every map must include

• Content
• Title
• Legend
• Date
• Location
• Projection
• Scale
• Direction
• Authentication
• Often clear in context

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Map projections

• Cylindrical
• Conic
• Planar
• Oval
• Interrupted

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Map scale

• Small-scale
• e.g., 1/10,000,000
• Shows large areas
• Projection important
• Large-scale
• e.g., 1/24,000
• Shows small areas
• Projection insignificant
• Issue Purpose!

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Global Positioning System

• Constellation of satellites
• 24 satellites
• 11,000 miles up
• 12 hours/orbit
• 3 x 10-9 sec. precision!
• Interrogate by ground station
• 3 (6?) to locate

Courtesy www.Garmin.com
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Geographic Information Science
Temp/humidity/vegetation
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Map Types I

• Pictures
• Electromagnetic spectrum
• Visible light
• Other wavelengths

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Map Types II

• Classifications
• Nominal
• e.g., geology
• Other?

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Contouring (Drawing Isolines)
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