Portrayal and Analysis of Thermal Climates

• Published in: Australian Geographical Studies
• Main Author: WACE, NIGEL
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1992
• Subjects: Antarctic; Indian; Southern Ocean; Troll; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8470.1992.tb00732.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1467-8470.1992.tb00732.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-8470.1992.tb00732.x

Mean drybulb air temperatures from 50 sites in the SW Pucific—Australasian—Southern Ocean and Antarctic—Indian Ocean coasts, have been plotted as surfaces in diurnal x seasonal thermoisopleth diagrams. following methods developed by Carl Troll. The diagrams are compared qualitarively, and measurements taken from them, quantifying the trend of the isopleths as the thermal components of seasonality (S) and diurnality (D). Continentality is measured as the hypotenuse of a triangle whose other two sides are S and D. The relationship of S and D values to the latitudes of different sites suggests that the method of measuring isopleth trends is valid. The time/temperature data on which thermoisopleth diagrams are based are reassembled as histograms. which are stacked in register to show the degree of overlap in temperature experience between different sites. Uses of thermoisopleth presentations of mean temperature levels include climatic classification. bioclimatology, measurement of energy demands for managing controlled environments, and the display of thermal climates to travellers. Deficiencies of these “black box” descriptive models are also discussed.