Ocean currents

[jbgibson]

How much does the rest of the world's climate matter? Given a generally earth-like situation, arakish's (amazing!) work could be a fair representation of 'plausible fiction'. But if you dial the axial tilt, distance from sun, cloud cover, amount of icecaps & continental glaciation up and down, you could probably get any small area *exactly* how you like. The rest of the planet might shift uncomfortably toward frozen, or desert, or what-have-you.

Arakish, the way those currents swirl seems reasonable. Especially since the continent blocks global flow, those three small seas to the east of the desired Europe-like area probably are very warm, self-circulating hot-tubs. Overall though, there could be some circulation that gets the Europe Analogue Isthmus some cooling, some rain without being a jungle, etc. Prevailing surface winds drive a lot of the surface currents, along with coriolis forces and the fact that these inconvenient continents generally get in the way :-). Maybe a judicious application of the pseudoscience of the wind tutorial I've started could "justify" appropriate climate.

Another consideration is just how stable do you want Nuelan's climate to be, over time? If it wobbles a bit on its axis, or if its sun is a little variable, you could pick your desired point on a cycle of cooling... glaciation... warming... desertification... repeat.

[Majortopio]

The rest of Neulan is allowed to be almost desert/desert areas, that would actually fit quite well with the storyline that I have in mind. And in regards to climate stability.. I suppose I could, how long would those cycles last though? The game I'm building is set in a slighty futuristic timeline, in a world thats economically and culturally collapsing, and that has been ravaged by the careless human race, so maybe an added aspect of sudden desertification or whatnot could add an interesting spin.

But I'll take a look at that wind tutorial then, I'm willing to do anything to get this to work.

[arakish]

And in regards to climate stability.. I suppose I could, how long would those cycles last though?

That is dependent upon a lot of factors. The Earth's axial tilt wobbles between 21 and 25 (approximation) degrees. Many scientists believe these wobbles (Milankovitch Cycles) are what help to create the Earth's periods of glaciation and warming. Basically, these wobbles are caused by the system's primary and all other planet's in the stellar system playing constant tug-of-wars on the Earth.

Of course, if you believe in the Nemesis Hypothesis (a coalstar with tremendous gravity well is in an elliptical orbit around our sun that cycles every 65,000,000 years (or so)), then Nuelan's Nemesis could be passing close and thus throws Nuelan's axis off. Of course, there is the perterbations of any comet and asteroid orbits that can cause a shooting gallery...

...so maybe an added aspect of sudden desertification or whatnot could add an interesting spin.

Also, there is the magnetic field polarity reversal that can cause all kinds of havoc. It has even been proven here on Earth. In the studies done on the mid-oceanic ridge in the Atlantic, they have found that as the ridge feeds new ocean floor, that it has created stripes of magnetic reversal. I'll look for some links about this and post them.

rmfr