Comparison of Maximum Air Temprature of Three Places Lying at Different Latitudes But Same Longitude Line
GLOBE Teacher Training Workshop
Gallaudet University
by Kris Hurst, Surinder Randhawa, and Katy Longley
Comparison of Maximum Air Temprature of Three Places Lying at Different Latitudes But Same Longitude Line
GLOBE Teacher Training Workshop
Gallaudet University
by Kris Hurst, Surinder Randhawa, and Katy Longley
Introduction
Originally, we had intended to research the difference in air temperature between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. We had noticed that the Southern hemisphere receives more solar energy than the Northern hemisphere. Thus, we might conclude that it is hotter. However, it also has a much greater amount of water than the Northern hemisphere, producing a cooling effect. Therefore, we were not quite sure how these two factors would interplay (solar energy and water amount). Undertaking a project of this nature, though, required much more time and energy than we had. Thus, we changed our project to a much more simpler one.
For our GLOBE teacher training workshop, we wanted to qualitatively research the relationship between maximum air temperature and latitude of three different cities lying near the same longitude. We chose this particular group project work because it would be interesting for upper elementary school children to graphically see how the air temperature of a location changes with its geographic location with respect to distance from the equator.
Hypothesis
We know that the areas around the equator tend to be very hot, but the poles are extremely cold. Therefore, our hypothesis is that as you move further away from the equator, maximum air temperature will decrease.
Methods
In order to control variables, we chose to study cities along one longitude line at different latitudes for the same duration of time. Using student information from GLOBE we tried for a very long time to locate such cities in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. However, we ended up finding only three cities in North America that met our criteria.
Data
The data was taken from the following schools.
Their longitude and latitude coordinates are also included in the
table.
| School Name | Latitude | Longitude |
| St. Helen School, FL | 26.1425 N | 80.1395 W |
| Fairview Elementary School, NC | 35.3915 N | 83.1969 W |
| Reynolds Jr. Sr. High School, PA | 41.3393 N | 80.3955 W |
Here is a map of North America. Can you locate our schools?
|
The data available for all the three schools for the same time span was from October of 1995 to March of 1996. Therefore, we graphed maximum air temperature for a span of six months.
The following visual represents the maximum air temperature for those months.
Results
Due to time constraints, quantitative analysis was not done. However, qualitative analysis was done using the above visual. We see a pattern in the maximum air temperatures. The school lying nearest to the equator (St. Helen in Florida) is represented by the top line on the graph showing that its maximum air temperature is the greatest over time compared to the other schools. Likewise, the school from North Carolina falls in the middle, and the most northern school (Pennsylvania) falls at the bottom.
For the month of October 19995, the visual average of maximum air temperature for the Florida school seems to be around 38oC, whereas for Fairview Elementary School of North Carolina, it is 27oC, and for the school furthest away from the equator, that is the Pennsylvania school, shown in red, it is around 18oC. In the successive months, the average temperature for the Florida school is still around 30oC, whereas for the Pennsylvania school, it is dropping sharply, and in the winter months of January-February even going below 0 many of times.
Conclusion
The data taken from three schools at different latitudes shows that our hypothesis was correct. The further away from the equator, the lower the maximum air temperature.
Further Work Needed
Our project only researched three schools in North America. To give validity to our results, more work should be done looking at areas in other parts of the world, both in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
That's all folks!