oops. It's SERIOUSLY been a long time since i last posted...
so yeah, during this long period of time, i joined RVSB!
and incase you've been living under a rock that stands for river valley softball.
the seniors will be competing in the nationals next week, so seniors
JIAYOU!JIAYOU!JIAYOU!JIAYOU!
you guys rock. (esp. Maggie C:)
kays, so with so much holiday h.w., seriously got no time for other things.
except for going on FB, of course.
completed the geog project, the weather docu proposal thing...
I'll post it here, so give me some tips n comments on how to improve, kayys?
TAG, PLEASE(and thank you.)?
kayys, here goes nothing...
FREAKY WEATHER A SUPERCOOL PROJECT DONE BY:
Xiao Xiao(1) C:
Cheryl(3) C:
Emily(5) C:
Wang Feng(15) C:
The topic which we have chosen is Freaky Weather. We think that this topic might not interest the audience at first because to them, weather is just a thing that comes and goes in their everyday lives. After viewing our program, we hope that the audience will be able to appreciate the weather more because by showing them more about a few weather phenomena, they will be able to appreciate it more and not just taking it as a part and parcel of their life. We hope to show them how interesting the weather is.
In our television series, we will be focusing on weather mysteries. But with such an all-encompassing presence in our lives, you may ask, what can be so mysterious about the weather and climate?
The weather phenomenon which we have chosen is “El Nino-Southern Oscillation” (In Short- ENSO). We think that this will be of interest to our viewers because El Nino causes different countries located in different regions in the world to experience different weather conditions. The question of how it does this, which was posed by Charles Darwin in 1833, has puzzled many scientists all around the world until the connection was discovered in 1957.
The Element of Mystery thickens the more you dig into the topic, discovering many cliff hangers which make you hungry for more explanations and information.
El Nino is a climatic pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean. It happens on average every five years, but over a period which varies from three to seven years, and is therefore, known as "quasi-periodic." (Appendix1) ENSO can be associated with floods, droughts and many other weather disturbances, which vary with each event.
El Nino brings about many negative effects; countries which are located near the Pacific Ocean and are highly dependent on fishing and agriculture are generally more vulnerable to El Nino.
ENSO is composed of an oceanic component, called El Nino(or La Nina, depending on its phase), which is characterized by warming or cooling of surface waters in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, and an atmospheric component, the Southern Oscillation, which is characterized by changes in surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific. The two components are coupled: when the warm oceanic phase (known as El Nino) is in effect, surface pressures in the western Pacific are high, and when the cold phase is in effect (La Nina), surface pressures in the western Pacific are low. El Nino and La Nina alternate between each other in terms of order. One is always preceded by the other.
In Spanish, “El Nino” means the boy which is referred as the Christ Child. The effects of El Nino are most noticeable around Christmas, thus the name. “La Nina” which means the girl in Spanish, is the opposite of it. (Appendix2)
El Nino is famous for its potentially catastrophic impact on the weather along both the Chilean and Australian coasts, whereby it causes severe flooding in Chile and extreme drought in Australia.
Example of El Nino:
The cool Humboldt Current (Appendix3) flows north along the west coast of South America. It is part of the anti-clockwise flow of the South Pacific gyre, a circular current on the ocean’s surface. As the wind and current push sea water away from the coast, upwelling occurs, which allows cool, deep, nutrient-rich waters to rise to the sunlit zones. This, in turn, creates a food-rich marine which humans use for fishing.
The cool upwelling produces fog, but little rainfall for the desert coasts of Peru and northern Chile. Occasionally, the upwelling stops and is overridden by warm tropical waters from the Pacific. This causes great loss of marine life and changes conditions from dry and desert-like to stormy and humid, disrupting the flow of nature.
Charles Darwin was the one who first posed the El Nino climate mystery in the 1830s, its eventual solution took nearly a century and a half.
Here is a story based on entries recorded in the journal of Charles Darwin.
The young naturalist coughed slightly as he puffed on his pipe nervously. With a shiver of trepidation, he glanced anxiously at the legendary Captain Robert Fitzroy. The two sat in the captain’s relatively small quarters (the Beagle was a relatively small ship) discussing the recent events and discoveries of the voyage. The naturalist fought to stem his nervousness. The captain was (somewhat to the young naturalist’s surprise) one of the most knowledgeable men he had ever met. He was beginning to realize that these evening talks were key reasons why Captain Fitzroy had selected him for this monumental voyage around the world. After all, he was only a very young scientist with few academic credentials. Apparently, for this voyage, the captain expected him to be observant and innovative and to be able to relay those observations to the master of the ship in an intelligent manner.
“I have found it to be incredibly fascinating, sir,” the naturalist began tentatively, “about this so-called gran seco of which I have heard repeatedly while in Argentina.”
The Captain, also smoking a long pipe, looked up from his logbook with a slight flicker of interest. “Pray Tell, Mr. Darwin, what is that?”
“Apparently, sir,” the naturalist elaborated with an inward sigh of relief at the success of his conversational gambit,” a gran seco refers to a drought of epic proportions. According to the locals, so little rain fell between the years 1827 and 1830 that the vegetation, even the thistles, failed; the brooks were dried up, and the whole country assumed the appearance of a dusty high road. “
“Indeed?” the captain asked as he closed his logbook to devote his full attention to the conversation. The naturalist had discovered early during the voyage that the captain loved to talk about the weather.
“Yes,” the young naturalist nodded his head in growing enthusiasm. “Particularly in the northern part of the province of Buenos Ayres, a very great number of birds, wild animals, cattle, and horses perished for the want of food and water. One local told me that the lowest estimation of the lost of cattle in that province alone was taken at one million head.”
“A million head of cattle?” the captain asked, disbelievingly. The young scientist nodded eagerly. “I was informed by a reliable eyewitness that the cattle in herds of thousands rushed into the Parana – that is one of Argentina’s main rivers.” Captain Fitzroy motioned for the young man to continue. “Well, these cattle were so exhausted by hunger from the drought that they were unable to scramble up the muddy banks, and thus were drowned. The same thing is said to have happened in fairly regular intervals of about every 15 years or so in the past. Very odd to think of cattle drowning during a drought.”
Fitzroy rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Even more interesting is the possibility of an inherent periodicity in these droughts. I have noticed that periodical droughts are somewhat more common in dry climates than in wet – such certainly is the case for Australia. I recall that Captain Stuart wrote that droughts recur there every ten to twelve years, and then are followed by many years of excessive rains till the next drought.” The young naturalist quickly agreed. “Yes, captain. I have read that the year1826 and the two years following were singularly dry in Australia.” He paused a moment. “That would coincide with the first of the gran seco droughts here in Argentina.”
Fitzroy closed his eyes and relit his pipe. The room was filling with an aromatic smoke – a good sign, the young scientist realized with growing delight, of an engaging conversation for the captain. Such conversations, the naturalist knew, helped combat his foul fits of temper. “Hmm,” the captain muttered thoughtfully. “Have there been other coincidences of simultaneous drought around the world? I seem to recall something around the late 1700s…” His voice trailed off as he stopped to puff on his pipe. The captain had a gleam in his eyes as he looked at his young apprentice scientist.
“Yes, you are certainly right, sir,” the brash young naturalist grinned as he seized the opportunity to impress the captain. “General Beatson, in his account on the natural environment of the island of St. Helena, wrote that he witnessed a severe drought on that island around 1971 but that the aridity of that year was apparently far more calamitous in the more distant land of India.”
The captain looked up thoughtfully. “And if I am not mistaken, did not Mr. Bryan Edward – in his History of the West Indies, as I recall – write that the winter season between 1791 and 1792 was unusually dry on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean Sea – half a world away from India?” The naturalist nodded eagerly, totally caught up in the growing string of coincidences. “ When I was reviewing the literature on the Verde Islands last year, I remember reading that Mr. Barrow in the later part of 1972 wrote that a drought of three year’ continuance – and consequent famine – had nearly desolated the main island there.”
“Fascinating,” the captain said. A gleam appeared in the eyes of the naturalist. “I wonder,” he speculated,” if there might be some very general cause that is creating these widely separated droughts around the world to occur simultaneously?”
The mystery continues until one and a half centuries later…
Story Taken From: Weather’s Greatest Mysteries Solved! , Randy Cervany, 2009
HOW DOES THIS DECREASE INCREASE VIEWERSHIP?
During each episode, the viewers will join Nina and Nicole, our two animated hosts, on their journey as they discover more about the weather phenomenon, El Nino. There will be short skits which are related to the topic shown. At the end of the show, there could be a segment where a question is posed every week and viewers need to answer the question and submit their entries at the end of the series. Correct entries are eligible for a lucky draw where the prize could be something like an IPod or MP3 player.
WILL IT FAIL SUCCEED?
All in all, we think that our proposal will be a success because we think that we have made use of innovative methods to capture the attention of our audience. The element of mystery will also help in increasing viewership as young people nowadays like suspense and feel a sense of satisfaction after solving a case. Our Docu-Series, “Mysterious Weather Cases INC.”, would be a creative way for teachers to teach their pupil about El Nino for it is interesting and appeals to the students. If it is chosen, It will definitely be a success!
THE APPENDIX. :D
Appendix 1: Quasi-periodicity is the property of a system that displays irregular periodicity. Periodic behavior is defined as recurring at regular intervals, such as "every 24 hours". Quasi-periodic behavior is a pattern of recurrence with a component of unpredictability that does not lend itself to precise measurement. It is different from the mathematical concept of an almost periodic function, which has increasing regularity over multiple periods.
Appendix 2: La Nina, sometimes informally called "anti-El Nino", is the opposite of El Nino. It corresponds instead to a higher sea surface temperature by a deviation of at least 0.5 °C, and its effects are often the reverse of those of El Nino.
Appendix 3: The Humboldt Current was named after the German Explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)
Yays! SO that's about it. Gimme some comments, PLEASE?
oh, one more thing, NO PLAGIARIAM 1C peeps.. TEEHEE C:
