Climate Anomalies for a Particular Region Essay

Climate Anomalies for a Particular Region - Essay Example The waves are disturbed by two forcing, namely, Orographic forcing and Thermal forcing. Orographic forcing, more relevant in northern hemisphere owing to dominating surface topography with Rocky Mountain and Tibetan plateau, relates to planetary waves generated due to the compression and expansion of air columns, leading to vortex stretching which can be balanced by the vorticity advection (Dickinson, 1978). Thermal forcing, varying with seasonal change in thermal effect, relates to generation of planetary waves by the adiabatic heating and cooling due to rising and sinking air motions; this maybe balanced by temperature advection (Ashe, 1987). In the subsequent paragraphs we shall examine climate anomalies for a particular region in the context of the large scale hemispheric wave pattern with a multiple objective to firstly, convert temperature and precipitation data, obtained from the Plymouth University Portal, into appropriate graphs, secondly, discuss and compare the seasons wit h reference to the hemispheric flow and lastly, discuss the possible reason for the variation in the temperature and precipitation on temporal and spatial scales. Examination of the climate anomalies involved collection of temperature and precipitati... This was followed by statistical analysis of the data which included determination of mean temperature and standard deviation for the four regions. The monthly hemispheric charts were plotted with the help of NOAA's Climate Diagnostics Centre following the link, http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/cdc/dtat.ncep.reanalysis.derived.html. Following steps are required for obtaining the plot:- When the above link opens Click on 'Pressure level Data'. The page automatically moves down. Now click on the 'Geo-potential height'. This should open a new page, scroll down and Click on 'make plot (Monthly Mean)'. To improve the chart quality, adhere to following details:- Select latitude between 20 and 90N, Select 500 mb and Select suitable dates (from, to). Now, select 'Plot' on white background, Polar stereographic and Remove Colour Plot. Finally click on Create Plot. Figure 1: Map of Europe, Source: Praxis network, 2007 The results were obtained place-wise, for four different regions, for summer and winter seasons. All graphs show the average monthly temperature or precipitation during a season. The data has been taken from the following regions (also marked in Figure 1 above):- Station Elevation (m) Latitude Longitude Toulouse 152 43.60 N 1.40 E Edinburgh 41 55.95 N 3.35 W Alborg 13 57.10 N 9.87 E Helsinki 53 60.30 N 25.00 E Table 1: Region Coordinates Final Results Figure 2: shows the average summer temperature for the period 1951-1991 for all stations Toulouse The average summer temperature graph shows the average maximum temperatures recorded in Toulouse from 1951 to 1991. The highest average temperature of 21.9 C was recorded in Toulouse in the summer of 1990 while lowest

Optimism and Health Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Optimism and Health Paper - Essay Example This article studies the impact of optimism on physical and emotional well being. In this regard, the article provides a detailed literature review and analysis, which takes into account quite a number of relevant studies and articles. The introductory part informs the writer about three different theoretical arguments on optimism. The first among these is that by Carver and colleagues who define optimistic people as individuals having a disposition towards optimism who indulge in more frequent protective attitudes, therefore they are not so vulnerable to stress and possess better coping strategies also. The second view point presented in this portion of the article is that of none other than Seligman, who argues that external, specific and stable positive attribution styles among the optimists contribute in optimists turning out to have better coping skills than pessimists. A third view point presented in this regard (Weinstein, 2005) states that optimism is actually a distortion of reality and calls it unrealistic optimism, which can occur either as a defense mechanism to protect one’s self esteem or due to cognitive factors like lack of insufficient knowledge or a poor critical insight. The main body follows the theoretical introduction. This is divided into four parts each under separate headings. The first part reports that researchers have found out that depression and suicidal ideation are inversely related to optimism (Velden  et al; 2007); and that psychotherapy which promotes optimism can enhance the mental health of people at risk, specially the post traumatic individuals (Giltay  et al; 2004). The second part is about optimism and physical health. Five studies are highlighted which support the conviction that optimism has a positive effect on physical health and helps in recovering from and preventing diseases like: AIDS, heart diseases and cancer. Some contradictory findings are also presented in this article. These findings suggest that though optimism may have a short term positive effect on health, it causes long term negative changes in the immune system due to unrealistic attribution style (Schofield  et al, 2004 & Tomakowsky  et al, 2001). The article also includes research that highlights the coping skills which optimists tend to use. Summarizing the fin dings of these studies; such coping styles include: acceptance of situation, positive assessment of situation and use of humor to lighten up the situation. Next section of the article deals with the impact of optimism on quality of life. Many studies have been reviewed by the authors in this regard. The findings of these studies suggest that optimists usually enjoy a better quality of life as compared to pessimists and score high on the physical as well as mental health related quality of life measures. The article further pursues the role of risk perception in optimism related physical and mental health. Most studies in this context revealed that optimi sts tend to perceive themselves as not being at risk or facing very little risk of diseases (McKenna  et al, 1993). The article ends with a concise conclusion that optimism plays an important role in the physical and mental well being of individuals. The authors have also recommended the use of psychotherapy that aims at optimism in order to reduce the risk of physical and mental health issues. 3. VALIDITY OF THE STUDY The article seems quite valid to me. It has covered