Monday, February 17, 2014

Wind rose plots for Atlanta airport


Here are the airport's wind rose plots from 1992 for the four seasons. The plots show which way the wind is going, not where the winds are coming from. One of the major concerns in Macon is air pollution. While Macon produces pollution on its own, part of the pollution seen in our area is pushed down from Atlanta. As  you can clearly see in the spring wind rose plot, air movement can tend heavily south, which would move Atlanta's heavy air pollution into the Macon area. The wind rose plots vary drastically from season to season and show how the seasons influence weather patterns.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Sun Position and Seasonality

During the winter seasons, the sun resides in the southern portion of the sky for the entire day. This is due to Earth's tilt. So even at noon, the sun is not 90 degrees from the horizon. The highest number I recorded was at 1:00 pm, with an angle of 39 degrees from the horizon. Between the shortened daylight hours and lack of direct sunlight, the average temperature plummets for the months of winter. Eventually Earth will reorient itself with the sun to provide the northern hemisphere with some more spring and summer sunshine to warm back up our region.


Time
Horizontal angle
Vertical angle
9 am
325
15
11 am
310
32
1 pm
280
39
3 pm
250
30
4 pm
230
23