Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Fairbanks Alaska Vs. Ranohira Madagascar.

Where would you rather be?
When trying to find a place to compare and contrast with Ranohira Madagascar I tried to pick a place that would have the most contrast. And what better place than Fairbanks Alaska! This blog post will take a deeper look into the differences between those two locations.


Source:Flicker.com
Here is a picture of what a typical November day would look like in Fairbanks Alaska.


Source:Woophy.com
And this is what a typical November day looks like in Ranohira.

Notice the differences. Im sure the first thing you would notice is the presence of snow in Alaska and the lack there of in Madagascar. This is because Madagascar is entering its summer season where as Alaska is entering its winter. During the Month of November Fairbanks is said to experience temperatures ranging from 43-23 degrees where as Ranohira is said to experience temperature ranging from the upper 80s to mid 90s during November.
Not only is the weather a polar opposite the locations are too. The latitude of Fairbanks is 64.837N and the longitude is -147.716W. Ranohira has a Latitude of 22.5 and longitude 45.4 E. These locations aren't even located in the same hemisphere that's how different they are.
Here is a closer look at the location of Fairbanks.

Source:fairbanks.world-guides.com
Here is another look at the location of Ranohira. (the dot marks the spot)

Source:traveljournals.net
Now, using those two pictures here is a world map. You can really get a sense of the location difference while looking at the locations at the same time on a map. Fairbanks would be located in the green area marked US off of Canada and Ranohira would be located in the pink island of Madagascar of the southeast coast of Africa.

Source:geology.com

But wait! Not everything about these two locations are different. Both Ranohira and Fairbanks are effected by a maritime polar air mass which means that whenever these months are experiencing winter cool humid air is blown onto the areas from the ocean. They are also both slightly affected by a maritime tropical air mass. If you refer to my last weeks blog about the air masses you will find a chart that illustrates these air masses. But because it isnt winter in Ranohira, you dont have to worry
So where would you rather be right now? Up in Fairbanks, Alaska probably getting smacked in the face with cold polar winds. Or in Ranohira, Madagascar baking in the sun. That's a slight over exaggeration but think about it. Personally I would much rather be off the coast of Africa, soaking up the sun in Ranohira, Madagascar.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Air Masses

There is a large maritime polar air mass sweeping from the Atlantic ocean that directly affects Madagascar. The inter tropical convergence zone during the summer shifts from being located over northern Madagascar to the southern region.
This map shows all of the airmasses worldwide. You can see the Maritime Polar mass that moves up towards Madagascar

Source: Earthmyspace.com
This photo shows you the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)over Madagascar

Source: web.idrc.ca
The steep topography of southern Madagascar causes cool moist air masses to rise and produce rainfall. Ranohira is not that steep however i still receives a fair amount of precipitation.
Here is a map that illustrates the variety of topography in Madagascar

Source: Mapsof.net
From my previous blog post you can compare the elevation of Ranohira with other parts of Madagascar.
During the winter mid-lattitude storms pass through southern Madagascar. Cyclones form over the Indian ocean and move inland towards the south and west. Here is a map tracking the patterns of these cyclones. This map doesn't track any of the cyclones heading south towards Ranohira, however, depending on environmental factors these storms could affect Ranohira and cause great damage.

Source: scienceblogs.com
This is a picture i found interesting. Its and arial view taken by a Nasa earth observatory of a cyclone moving towards Madagascar.

Source:earthobservatory.nasa.gov

ALSO! Sorry for all of my photos being so gigantic, i couldn't figure out how to shrink them.