The tropics is a region of the Earth by the Equator An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass. The capitalized term Equator refers to the Earth's equator. It is limited in latitude Latitude, usually denoted by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth (or other planetary body) north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the imaginary horizontal lines shown running east-to-west (or west to east) on maps (particularly so in the Mercator projection) that run either north or south of the equator by the Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, also referred to as the Northern tropic, is the circle of latitude on the Earth that marks the apparent position of the Sun at the time of the northern solstice in the northern hemisphere at approximately 23° 26′ 16″ ( or 23.438° ) N and the Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It currently lies 23º 26′ 17″ south of the equator in the southern hemisphere at 23° 26′ 16″ ( or 23.438° ) S. The tropics are also referred to as the tropical zone and the torrid zone (see geographical zone Each of the five main latitude regions of the Earth's surface is said to be a geographical zone, divided by the major circles of latitude. The differences between them relate to climate, and the behaviour of the Sun. They are as follows:).
The tropics include all the areas on the Earth where the Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It has a diameter of about 1,392,000 kilometers , about 109 times that of Earth, and its mass (about 2 × 1030 kilograms, 330,000 times that of Earth) accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. About three quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen, while the rest is reaches a point directly overhead and a point directly underneath at least once during the solar year. Outside the tropics, the Sun never reaches a point directly overhead or a point directly underneath at any time during the year.
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Seasons and climate
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"Tropical" is sometimes used in a general sense for a tropical climate A tropical climate is a kind of climate typical in the tropics. Köppen's widely-recognized scheme of climate classification defines it as a non-arid climate in which all twelve months have mean temperatures above 18 °C to mean warm to hot and moist year-round, often with the sense of lush vegetation.
The seasons in the tropics are dominated by the movement of the tropical rain belt The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics in the Eastern Hemisphere over the course of the year.[citation needed] The tropical rain belt lies in the southern hemisphere of the Indian ocean and western Pacific ocean roughly from October to March, and during this (or ITCZ The ITCZ was originally identified from the 1920s to the 1940s as the "Intertropical Front" , but after the recognition in the 1940s and 1950s of the significance of wind field convergence in tropical weather production, the term "ITCZ" was then applied the intertropical convergence zone) which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of a year, resulting in a dry season The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year. The tropical rain belt lies in the southern hemisphere roughly from October to March, and during this time the and a wet season The wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the tropics and subtropics. In contrast to areas with savanna rather than the various temperatures and day lengths indicative of the spring Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of "spring" as a season differs, however, among scientific disciplines such as astronomy and meterorology, and, summer Summer is the warmest of the four temperate seasons, between spring and autumn. It is marked by the longest days and shortest nights. The seasons start on different dates in different cultures based on astronomy and regional meteorology. However, when it is summer in the southern hemisphere it is winter in the northern hemisphere, and vice versa, autumn Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter, usually in March (Southern Hemisphere) or September (Northern Hemisphere) when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier and winter Winter is the coldest season of the year, between autumn and spring, marked by the shortest days and longest nights pattern found in areas outside tropics.
However, the starting dates of the seasons A season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight are related to the tropics, despite the fact that these dates only apply in the temperate In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold. But in continental areas, such as Asia and central North America the variations between summer and winter can be extreme and polar regions Earth's polar regions are the areas of the globe surrounding the poles also known as frigid zones. The North Pole and South Pole being the centers, these regions are dominated by the polar ice caps, resting respectively on the Arctic Ocean and the continent of Antarctica. Polar sea ice is currently diminishing, possibly as a result of with only the winter solstice The Winter Solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the Winter Solstice lasts only an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used as Midwinter or contrastingly the first day of winter to refer to the day on which it occurs. More evident to those in high latitudes, date applying in the tropics because the summer solstice The Summer Solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's axial tilt is closest to the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the Summer Solstice is an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used like Midsummer to refer to the day on which it occurs. Except at the equator and in the polar regions (where daylight is continuous for half of the occurs when the Sun is at the zenith In general terms, the zenith is the direction pointing directly "above" a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at the location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface there. The concept of "above" is more specifically defined in astronomy, geophysics and related sciences as the vertical direction, which occurs at different dates for different latitudes Latitude, usually denoted by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth (or other planetary body) north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the imaginary horizontal lines shown running east-to-west (or west to east) on maps (particularly so in the Mercator projection) that run either north or south of the equator. Spring begins when the Sun is directly over the Equator (vernal equinox An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the centre of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus). Summer begins when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, also referred to as the Northern tropic, is the circle of latitude on the Earth that marks the apparent position of the Sun at the time of the northern solstice in the north or when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It currently lies 23º 26′ 17″ south of the equator in the south (summer solstice The Summer Solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's axial tilt is closest to the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the Summer Solstice is an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used like Midsummer to refer to the day on which it occurs. Except at the equator and in the polar regions (where daylight is continuous for half of the). Autumn begins when the Sun is again directly over the Equator (autumnal equinox An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the Sun being vertically above a point on the Equator. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus and nox (night),). Winter begins when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It currently lies 23º 26′ 17″ south of the equator in the north or when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, also referred to as the Northern tropic, is the circle of latitude on the Earth that marks the apparent position of the Sun at the time of the northern solstice in the south (winter solstice The Winter Solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the Winter Solstice lasts only an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used as Midwinter or contrastingly the first day of winter to refer to the day on which it occurs. More evident to those in high latitudes,).
Tropical Sunset over the sea in Kota Kinabalu Kota Kinabalu (pronounced [ˈkota kinaˈbalu], formerly Jesselton, is the capital of Sabah state in Malaysia. It is also the capital of the West Coast Division of Sabah. The city is located on the northwest coast of Borneo facing the South China Sea. The Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park lies on one side and Mount Kinabalu, which gave the city its, Malaysia ^ b. The current terminology as per government policy is Bahasa Malaysia but legislation continues to refer to the official language as Bahasa Melayu (literally Malay language). English may continue to be used for some official purposes under the National Language Act 1967.Regions within the tropics may well not have a tropical climate. There are alpine tundra Alpine tundra is an ecozone that does not contain trees because it is at high altitude. Alpine tundra is distinguished from arctic tundra, because alpine soils are generally better drained than arctic soils. Alpine tundra transitions to subalpine forests below the tree line; stunted forests occurring at the forest-tundra ecotone are known as and snow-capped peaks, including Mauna Kea Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaiʻi. In Hawaiian, Mauna Kea means "white mountain," referring to its summit, which is usually snow-capped in winter. The name is derived from Mauna o Wakea, or "Mountain of (the deity) Wākea.", Mount Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is an inactive stratovolcano in north-eastern Tanzania and the highest mountain in Africa at 5,893 metres or 19,334 ft above sea level . Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest freestanding mountain as well as the 4th most prominent mountain in the world, rising 5,882 metres or 19,298, and the Andes The Andes are the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continuous chain of highland along the western coast of South America. The range is over 7,000 km long, 200 km (120 mi) to 700 km (430 mi) wide (widest between 18° to 20°S latitude), and of an average height of about 4,000 m (13,000 ft) as far south as the northernmost parts of Chile Chile (traditional English pronunciation /ˈtʃɪli/, also pronounced /ˈtʃiːleɪ/ ), officially the Republic of Chile (Spanish: República de Chile [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈtʃile] ( listen)), is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders and Argentina The Argentine claims in Antarctica along with the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands (administered by the United Kingdom) shown in light green. Under the Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself notably in 1918 and 1936. Later, German climatologist Rudolf Geiger collaborated with Köppen on changes to the classification, much of the area within the geographical tropics is classed not as "tropical" but as "dry" (arid Under the Koppen climate classification, a Desert climate , also known as an arid climate, is a climate where temperatures are moderate and rainfall is too low to sustain any vegetation at all, or at best a very scanty scrub. Areas featuring this climate are usually deserts. An area that features this climate usually (but not always) experiences or semi-arid A semi-arid climate or steppe climate describes climatic regions that receive low annual precipitation, usually between 250-500 mm (10-20 in) of precipitation. A more precise definition is given by the Köppen climate classification that treats steppe climates (BSk and BSh) as intermediates between the desert climates (BW) and humid climates in) including the Sahara Desert The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,400,000 square kilometres (3,630,000 sq mi), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The only larger desert in the world is Antarctica, classified as such due to very low precipitation rates. The Sahara Desert stretches from the Red Sea, and Australian Outback The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, although the term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".
Tropical ecosystems
Coconut Trees amongst the warm, tropical climate in Brazil Brazil (pronounced /brəˈzɪl/ ; Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population. It is the only Portuguese-speaking.Tropical plants and animals are those species native to the tropics. Tropical ecosystems may consist of rainforests Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm . The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests, dry deciduous forests, spiny forests, desert A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than 250 millimetres per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen and other habitat types. There are often significant areas of biodiversity Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or on an entire planet. Biodiversity is one measure of the health of biological systems. Life on Earth today consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The year 2010 was declared the International Year of Biodiversity, and species endemism present, particularly in rainforests and dry deciduous forests. Some examples of important biodiversity and/or high endemism ecosystems are: El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico, Costa Rican and Nicaraguan rainforests, Brazilian and Venezuelan Amazon Rainforest territories, Madagascar dry deciduous forests, Waterberg Biosphere of South Africa and eastern Madagascar rainforests. Often the soils of tropical forests are low in nutrient content making them quite vulnerable to slash-and-burn techniques, which are sometimes an element of shifting cultivation agricultural systems.
In biogeography, the tropics are divided into paleotropics (Africa, Asia and Australia) and neotropics (Central and South America). Together, they are sometimes referred to as the pantropics. The neotropic region should not be confused with the ecozone of the same name; in the Old World, this is unambiguous as the paleotropics correspond to the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and partly the Australasian and Oceanic ecozones.
About 40 percent of the world's human population lives within the tropical zone (by 2008 statistics), and by 2060, 60% of the human population will be in the tropics due to high birth rates and migration.[1]
See also
- Tropical year
- Tropic of Cancer
- Tropic of Capricorn
- Geographical zone
- Equator
- Tropical marine climate
- Tropical disease
- Tropicalismo
- Subtropics
External links
- Tropen, Goethe-Institut (bilingual web site English/German with many informations and extracts from novels, short stories, essays, etc. written by explorers, conquerors and writers since the discovery of the so called New World)
References
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Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:07:24 GMT+00:00
BBC News For hundreds of years, Royal Navy seamen queued up in galleys from the poles to the tropics to receive their regulation lunchtime tot of rum. ... What did they do with the drunken sailor? BBC News
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en muziekstijl geeft voor ieder de juiste mood en te gekke parties Met de Lloret Night VIP Pass heb je de hele week gratis toegang Daarnaast krijg je in Tropics op de drankjes 50 korting Programma discotheek Tropics 2009
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ue, 13 Jul 2010 13:32:00 GM
Frozen . Tropics. . A look at what's going on in Trinidad, on H Street, and in the larger area north of Capitol Hill. Tuesday, July 13, 2010. WBJ: Wells Eyes $ for H Street Businesses. The Washington Business Journal reports that Wells is ...
