Geography 101

Fall 2008 Physical Geography:

The first three items below are periodically handed out in class; the most current copy should always be available here.

• Syllabus - Geography 101 course syllabus and general information (Fall 2008).
• Course Calendar - updated course calendar and assignment info (Fall 2008).
• Homework - Homework assignments (Fall 2008).
• Section 1 notes - Lecture notes (handouts) for Physical Geography text, Chapters 1-4.
• Section 2 notes - Lecture notes (handouts) for Physical Geography text, Chapters 5-7.
• Section 3 notes - Lecture notes (handouts) for Physical Geography text, Chapters 8-14/21.
• Physical Geography text Companion Web Site - Elemental Geosystems (5th Ed) companion web site at Prentice Hall. Go here for additional chapter exercises.

• Office Hours - Virtual office hours on IRC.

Physical Geography Topic links:

• Geography Matters - Animated presentation of why geography and GIS matters in the modern world (courtesy of ESRI).
• Mapserver GIS Demo - The MapServer Itasca Demo Application, illustrating several basic web application methods.
• Cloud Pictures - A sampling of my own weather and cloud photos from around the Central Coast and elsewhere (including some instrumentation).
• GeoSoft - A sampling of several open source software packages for GIS, geography, earth science, and yes, even the social sciences (free stuff).

• Latitude and Longitude - A brief description of latitude, longitude, timezones, etc.
• Map Projections - Nice module on map projections from The Geographer's Craft Project, Department of Geography, The University of Colorado at Boulder.
• The Sun: Sunspots and Other Solar Mysteries - Space Today articles on sunspots, space weather, and more.
• Solar System Science - The Sun-Earth connection courtesy of NASA; general info, latest research, etc.
• Earth-Sun Relation - Animation of the Earth-Sun relationship (requires Flash plugin).
• Planetary Scale - A view of the physical scale of the planets in our solar system, as well as various stars.

• Standard Atmosphere - Properties of the International Standard Atmosphere.
• Air Masses and Fronts - A guide to fronts and air masses from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• Cloud Types - Descriptions of various cloud types with lots of great photos.
• Hurricane Hunter slideshow - A nice set of pics with descriptions, from a former navigator on an Air Force WC-130 weather reconnaissance aircraft.
• Flight through the eye of Hurricane Dean - A nice NOAA Hurricane Hunter video from YouTube member noladotcom.
• Tornadoes - A tornado guide from the National Severe Storms Laboratory.
• Santa Maria Climate - Santa Maria climate data in tabular format (from Desert Research Institute).
• Abrupt Climate Change - Short overview of abrupt climate change over the last 100,000 years (Weather Underground).

• The Story of Plate Tectonics - A nice little publication on plate tectonics from the USGS (also available in print).
• Hot Spots - A short discussion of mantle plumes as the mechanism for volcanic hot spots (USGS).
• Volcano Types - A great source of information on the geology of volcanoes from Vic Camp at SDSU.
• Long Valley Observatory - The USGS maintains a long-term observation and data collection program for this caldera in east-central California (several pamphlets and info on a nice CD-ROM database can be found here).

• Weathering and Mass Wasting - From the University of Wisconsin Geology Dept.
• Ui, Japan Landslide video - Caught on camera; now on YouTube...
• Fluvial Processes - Chapter on streamflow and fluvial processes from PhysicalGeography.Net.
• Aeolian Processes - Short comparison of aeolian (wind-driven) processes on Earth and Mars.
• Coastal Processes - Shorelines and coastal processes.
• All about Glaciers - Basic information on glaciers from The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
• Alpine Glaciers - An Illustrated Glossary of Alpine Glacial Landforms, part of The Virtual Geography Department Project.

• The World's Biomes - An overview of the world's basic types of biomes (an online exhibit from the University of California Museum of Paleontology).
• Lord of the Ants - A cool Nova episode on E.O. Wilson's life and ideas, including sociobiology and biodiversity.

Humans and Earth Systems

• Water Resources - info from USGS on the water cycle, water use, and more.
• Ancient Geography - Organized by the Ancient World Mapping Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for the purposes of expanding, enhancing and publishing information about ancient places, spaces, and peoples.
• Life Without People - A History Channel special on what might happen to the rest of the earth environment if we (humans) suddenly disappeared... Worth a look.

A recent article in EOS describes the impact of regional climatology and meteorology on southern California wildfires, including the effects on human populations and fire management. Some of the references are available online:

Southern California 2003 Firestorm Report - Report on the lessons learned from the Oct 2003 firestorm in southern and Baja California, as well as other resources and a budding wildfire portal.

More links:

• Southern California Wildland Fire Hazard Center - Southern California Wildland Fire Hazard Center at UCSB.
• Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center - Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center at CSU Long Beach.
• National Interagency Fire Center - Information and coordination site for several federal agencies involved in fire management.
• National Wildfire Coordinating Group - Coordinates overall programs of the participating wildfire management agencies.
• Southern California fire info - Temporary web site for distribution of fire information (2005)

• MODIS Rapid Response System - The MODIS Land Rapid Response system provides rapid access to MODIS imagery and data.
• Natural Hazards - Natural hazard imagery and info from NASA's Earth Observatory web site.
• Maps of the California Wildfires - GIS fire maps of California and links from ESRI (a commercial GIS software company).

Current (as of 9-23) consensus forecast track for Hurricane Jeanne. Most models show the track somewhat east of the one pictured, however, NOGAPS has it significantly west of there. So the consensus is to move the average track of the other models slightly west. Is that correct? We'll have to see; perhaps NOGAPS knows something the others don't...

Mathematics of Earth Systems

The universe is definitely nonlinear, even though the initial way of treating something like the motion of the atmosphere, and most natural dynamical systems, is with simple linear mathematical tools. In general, these tools can only approximate natural systems, sometimes only a small portion of the overall solution space. As an example, check out these lenticular cloud pictures. Does that look like the result of a simple linear process to you? I hope not...

• Lenticular Clouds - Assorted lenticular cloud photos.

For the mathematical viewpoint, including examples of fluid flow, check out these phase portraits, and then go read up on Chaotic Dynamics and the Butterfly Effect. Fun stuff! (Start with a copy of "Does God Play Dice?" by Ian Stewart).

• Phase Portraits - Assorted nonlinear mathematical systems pictured in phase space.

The old geography web pages are no longer maintained. All the current content is now in Zope, and no updates will be made to the old static pages.