Geo notes

Definitions:

Soil moisture or green water - Green water is rain that does not run into streams or recharge groundwater. It is stored in the soil or stays on top of the soil or vegetation. This water eventually evaporates or transpires through plants.
Surface water or blue water - Blue water refers to all of the freshwater stored in rivers, lakes, wetlands and aquifers (the underground water).

Facts about water:

How is water used - Agriculture, industrial manufacturing, sanitation, drinking and cooking.
How water can change - Precipitation, sublimation, condensation and evaporation.
Threats to water - Altered weather, overuse, sea level rise and pollution

Water on earth:

Earth's surface - 71%
Seas and oceans - 96.5%
Ground water - 1.7%
Glaciers and ice caps - 1.7%
Only 2.5% of the Earth’s water is freshwater and 98.8% of that water is in ice and groundwater.

Catchments:

A catchment - An area of land where rain and runoff flow down into a shared low point, such as a river, lake, or dam.
Importance - All of our food is grown in catchments.
Gravity - It pulls water downward in a catchment. It forces rain and melted snow to flow from high mountain areas into small streams.
Where can it collect in - Lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.

Water cycle:

Transpiration - Plants release water vapour into the air through tiny openings in their leaves.
Evaporation - Heat from the sun turns liquid water into vapour that rises into the atmosphere.

Runoff - Water flows over the land into rivers, lakes, and oceans after rain or snow melts.
Condensation - Water vapour cools and changes into droplets that gather to form clouds.
Precipitation - Water falls from clouds back to Earth as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
Infiltration - Water soaks into the ground and fills spaces in soil and rock.

Climate graphs:

Climate graphs - Used to show the average temperature and rainfall experienced at a particular place over the course of a year.

Red line - Showing the average temperature per month, on the left
Blue columns - Showing the amount of rainfall per month, on the right (rain is on the right)

You must have a title (location), months, temperature scale, precipitation scale, temperature line graph and precipitation columns.

Synoptic graphs:

Low pressure system - Rising air and lousy weather like cooler temperatures, increase in wind speed and increased chance of rain.
High pressure system - Falling air and happy weather like warmer temperatures, lower in wind speed and decreased chance of rain.
Isobars - The average hPa is 1013 any lower is low pressure and any higher is a high pressure.
Trough - Troughs are associated with cloudy conditions, rainfall and even thunderstorms.
Cold fronts - Are the front of a moving mass of cold air, the arrows point to where the warmth is and behind is the cold. Conditions similar to low pressure systems.
Warm fronts - Are the front of a moving mass of warm air, the arrows point to where the cold is and behind is the warmth. Conditions similar to high pressure systems.

Hemispheres:

Northern hemisphere - Countries have their summer in June, July and August.
Southern hemisphere - Countries have their summer in December, January and February.

The bottom half, below the equator is the southern hemisphere and the upper half, above the equator is the northern hemisphere.

Interpreting climate graphs:

Max and min temp - What is max and min temperature, wider temperature range means it is further away from the equator.
Highest temp - What are the highest temperatures if in Dec, Jan and Feb then it is the southern hemisphere.
Rainfall - Is rainfall consistent or seasonal, a lot means a tropical location, not a lot can mean it's a desert.