Meteorology, History of Cartography, Europe Notes 1/4

• Meteorology, History of Cartography, Europe:

  Climate and Clouds:

  Climate Regions are classified by

  • Latitude

  • Altitude

  Koppen-Geiger - System of Climate Classification

  • 5 Main Groups

    • A - Tropical

    • B - Dry

    • C - Temperate

    • D - Continental

    • E - Polar

  • Has sub groups that define the climate of these areas more specifically

  • DC Area is in the Cfa

  • Problems with Koppen-Geiger

    • Scare records, short term

    • Weather / Climate change

  Clouds

  • Cumulus - Low Altitude (Base 6,500 feet)

    • Most Common

  • Cumulonimbus - Low Altitude (Base 6,500 feet)

    • Massive collection of Cumulus

    • Top can reach as high as 63,000 feet

    • Can form individually or a long stretching line

    • Strong Storms, Lightning, Hail, Heavy rain

    • Associated with Cold fronts

  • Stratus - Low Altitude (Base 6,500 feet)

    • Associated with Warm fronts

  • Cirrus - High Altitude (Base around 20,000 feet)

    • Feathery, wispy

  History of Cartography

  Eratosthenes

  • Mathematician, Philosopher, Geographer, Astronomer, and a lot more

  • From Egypt

  • Worked at the Library of Alexandria

  • His measurements on the Earths’ circumference were based on certain facts

    • The distance between cities of Alexandria and Syene is 500 miles

    • Alexandria and Syene is on a north-south line

    • Syene is on the extreme edge of the tropic of cancer

    • 500 × 50 = 25,000 miles is what he came up with for the circumference of the Earth

    • Only within 250 miles of the actual answer, very close

  Longitude and Latitude on a Globe

  • Latitude - Horizonal bands

  • Longitude - Vertical bands passing through both poles

  John Harrison

  • Wants to build a marine chronometer to calculate the longitude of the ship

  • His thought process

    • Earth = 360 degrees

    • 24 hours in a day, 360 degrees/24 hours in a day = 15

    • Thus, for every 15 degrees that one travels east or west, the local time moves one hour

      • Knowing the local times of two places on Earth allows us to calculate how far apart those places are in longitude east or west

  Pre-Historic Cartography

  • Purpose

    • Communicating spatial information

  • Early discovery

    • Found in Turkey in 1963, dating back to 6200 BC

    • Art rendering a erupting volcano near buildings

  • Map bases (material)

    • Stick maps in martial islands, via seashells for island and directional sticks for ocean currents

    • Clay tablets in area around Tigris and Euphrates rivers (mesopotanmia). Created over 3k yrs ago

    • Animal skins, map of western Africa and eastern south America (1513). Seal skin was used too.

  Claudius Ptolemy

  • Wrote book called “Geography” - first real instructions on map makings

  • Nothing compares to it

  • Influenced adventures such as Christopher Columbus to explore a spherical world

  Roman Cartography

  • Inherited skills from the Greeks

  • Produced maps on cloth, stone, and bronze

  • Primary surveying instrument - The Groma

  The Groma

  • Consisted of a long staff or pole with 4 bladed propeller shaped piece all at right angles balanced at the top. Balancing was achieved by equal weights tied and suspended from the tips of the blade

  • Greatly improved geographic accuracy

  • Used for establishing straight lines and angles

  Impressionistic Maps of the Middle Ages

  • T-O Map was the predominate shape (Orbis Terrarum)

    • The name comes from the structure of the map… A T inside an O

    • Reflected the power of the church at the time

    • Details about the T-O map

      • East was always at the top because the church says that heaven is East

      • Each quadrant has 1 of 3 known continents: Asia (Top), Europe (Bottom left) , Africa (Bottom right)

      • The outer circle with everything inside it represents the ocean

      • The “T” represents the waterways that separates the continents (Don river between EU and Asian, The Nile between Asia and Africa, and The Mediterranean between Europe and Africa)

      • Jerusalem was always at the center

  The Invention of the Atlas

  • Mid 1500s, Age of Discovery slowly beginning

    • In the Mid 1500s… Exploration exploded, rise of world economies, turmoil through Europe, routes must be planned carefully

  • Aegidius Hooftman

    • Organization of maps was always a problem, and he needed a solution

  • Abraham Ortelius

    • Not an academic, but was regarded as a scholar

    • Cartographer and collector

    • Intrigued by Hooftmans problem

    • He would obtain the best map of every area around in the best quality and put them together in a single book. He did not create the maps.

    • Planned the book to have 30 maps and consulted with Gerard Mercator

  • Ortelius “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum” (First Atlas)

    • Never claimed the maps to be his creation

    • Included were maps of:

      • Germany

      • France

      • Netherlands

      • Italy

      • etc.

    • First modern Atlas was published in 1570, compiled and edited by Abraham Ortelius

    • Called “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum”

  • Gerard Mercator

    • Friend of Ortelius

    • Was trying to solve the problem of plotting a course using a straight line on a flat map

    • “The Mercador Projection”

      • Perfect for the purpose

      • Misused a lot

      • The 2D map we are all used to

      • Further from the equator, the more inaccurate the size and results in misconceptions like Greenland bigger than it is.

    • First to use “South and North America”

    • First to make a map with Asia and NA not joined

    • Used Italics in European maps for the first time

    • Published his own book with 51 maps

    • Created the name “Atlas” for his book

  Components to a Complete Map

  Map Elements:

  • Title

    • Contains date

  • Legend/Key

  • Scale

    • Give us an idea of how large a graphic element is

  • North Arrow

    • North isn’t always at the top of every map

  • Source Statement

    • Give credit

  • Graphic Element

  Design Variable

  • Color

    • What’s the best colors and shades

  • Linework

    • What types of lines

  • Font

  • Symbology

  • Texture

    • Represent information

  3 Ways to Represent Scale on a Map

  1. Representative Fraction (FR)

     • ie: 1:10,000

     • 1:24,000

     • with this one^^, it means 1 inch equals 24,000 inches in real life

  2. Verbal Statement “1 inch equals 16 miles’

  3. Visual Bar Scale - Often 3 visual bars on a map (Miles, feet, kilometers)

  Missed Terms:

  Names:

  Alexander von Humbolt contributions

  • Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined (South America and Africa in particular)

  Mark Jefferson - Every country has a Primate City ( a city that dominates in economics, social factors and in politics)

  James Watt

  • A Scottish engineer who created the steam engine that worked faster and more efficiently than earlier engines, this man continued improving the engine, inventing a new type of governor to control steam pressure and attaching a flywheel.

  Alfred Weber

  • LEAST COST THEORY to predict the locational decisions made by industrial operations. -agglomeration vs degolomerate forces

  Waldo Tobler's 1st Law of Geography - "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things."

  Terms:

  Polders - areas in the Netherlands drained of sea water & now used for farmland

  Primate city - A countries largest city (usually but not always the capital)

  Ancona Line - Northern and Southern Italy are divided by this invisible line extending from Rome to the Adriatic coast at Ancona. core= industrial, contains milan, skilled labor. periphery= stagnant south, intensive agriculture

  Länder - the states in Germany

  Coriolis Effect - A deflective force rising from rotation on axis, responsible for high and low pressure system rotations

  Shatter Belt - An area of instability between regions with opposing political and cultural values.

  Fjord - A long, narrow inlet of the sea with steep sides. NORWAY

  Mercantilism - An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought

  Supranationalism - Term applied to associations created by three or more states for their mutual benefit and achievement of shared objectives

  Irredentism - A policy of cultural extension and potential political expansion by a state aimed at a community of its nationals living in a neighboring state.

  Cartogram - A map that distorts to convey a geographical message

  Nation-State - country whos population posses a substantial degree of cultural homogenity and union. political unit

  Agglomeration - industry locates to take advantage of an established market. not necessarily near rich natural resources. Alfred Weber

  Balkans - northern tip of Adriatic sea, Northwest corner of the black sea (odesa), ans southern tip of greek mainland, forms a triangle

  Break-of-Bulk - location along a transport route where goods must be transferred from one carrier to another. In a port, cargoes of ships are unloaded and put on trains and trucks for inland distribution

  NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization; an alliance made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country; US, England, France, Canada, Western European countries.

  Benelux - Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg

  Core periphery concept - The contrasting spatial characteristics of and linkages between the have (core) and the have not (periphery) components of national, regional, or global system (im fs not remembering this bs)

  Karst topography - A type of landscape in rainy regions where there is limestone near the surface, characterized by caverns, sinkholes, and valleys

  Devolutionary Forces - Economic, ethnocultural, spatial.

Conurbation - an aggregation or continuous network of urban communities