zzzAdamChambersMatlabHW1

My __language code file for making the below figures is linked__

Besides using Elizabeth's script to load the files, I started the code from scratch.

===2. Calculate zonally averaged P and v over longitude, and plot the resulting latitude-time series.===

Here is the latitude-time sections of P in the zonal mean, and at 91.25W:



We do not live in a "typical" longitude, as we see more precipitation than the global average. The global average peaks around June near the equator in the data, but this is not seen here because only 10 shades were chosen for the plot colorbars. I figured it would be interesting to show how just one or two shades extra can expose potentially important data. On the other hand, at 90W there is a longer period of peak precipitation along the equator from March til November.

Here is the latitude-time sections of v in the zonal mean, and at 90W:



Similiar to preicpitation, the magnitude of the zonal wind is much greater than the global average at 90W. The two peaks near the equator and 90S on both plots are due to the ITCZ and Antarctic/polar winds respectively.

===3. Average air temperature over both lat and lon, to make a 12-month time series. Which season has the warmest global mean surface temperature? Can you understand why?===

Global mean surface temperature has a mild annual cycle:



We see that the global mean temp peaks in the summer months of the northern hemisphere. This occurs because the northern hemisphere has more land mass. The deviation of ~3 degrees Celsius is not very large. ===4. Make a map of the temporal (i.e. seasonal) standard deviation of precipitation, expressed as a percentage of the annual mean precipitation. This might be one definition of a "monsoonal" climate.=== Here is a map expressing the seasonality of precipitation:



Places with intensely seasonal rainfall tend to be in the tropical latitudes, and especially in monsoon areas (Saharan, Northern Austrailia, India, Asian monsoon region).

5. What is the space-time standard deviation of 'air' (temperature)?
The challenge of computing it is that we want area averages over the Earth, but we started with lat-lon grids. Hence, the latitude has to be weighted so that the spherical shape of the earth is taken into account. The caluculated space-time standard deviation of the temperature is **15.22 degrees** Celsius.