[WIP] Finishing Climates and Biomes

[Facubaci]

Hello everyone!

I want to show you a map I'm developing with a friend. I also want to thank to Azelor, Deashade and Ilanthar, who contributed to its realization.
Now I want to solve some doubts about the geography, topography, hydrography and other topics. I want a map as real as possible, and without incoherent areas, rivers and mountains.

First I show the map of the reliefs, with its scale of height in meters.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ly0bvxn0nj...endor.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wpbohm2396...ores2.jpg?dl=0

Secondly, this is the map of the climates according to Köppen climates (thanks Azelor).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/51ywhu49n6...oppen.jpg?dl=0

Thirdly, this is the map of the average rainfall, according to the climates. You can see a grid with the latitude and longitude. You can see a scale of distances in kilometers.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1lt4z2givg...medio.jpg?dl=0

Fourthly, this is the approximate map of the wind-currents direction (although they may vary according to season).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nlni2ok72g...entos.jpg?dl=0

Fifth, this is the map of the possible lakes and ponds, according to rainfall and landforms.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1yzn0p6gis...gunas.jpg?dl=0

What do you think? I don't have a map of forests, since I'm reviewing the rivers yet, but I know that forests can be in almost any climate. In satellite representation, which would be the most realistic, it would be difficult to differentiate forests. Anyhow forest belong to the biomes, and I haven't seen them yet. We're developing this map for a long time, once finalized all the geographical aspects, we'll represent the map in different ways (old style/ fantasy).
I have another map with possible flood zones that generally happen around rivers/lakes and lowlands.

Some questions:
-How change in winter/summer the maps I did?
-I don't know what to do with the river and the possible lakes/lagoons that there're in the "great valley" at the right of the map, because it's an steppe area.

I'm following these threads that are very helpful:
-http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=27782
-http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=31892
-http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=31774

I appreciate any kind of comment, really.

Thank you very much!!

[Charerg]

I haven't considered all the climates in detail, but it definitely looks like a good starting point. That said, I think you should include a graticule (latitude lines) in the maps, because otherwise it's hard to judge which area should fall into a specific temperature category. Secondly, since Oceanic currents can have a major effect on climate, I think it would be good to include a map of those as well. Also, it would be good to know how large the continent is, generally speaking, since that has a large effect on climate too.

I do have a few suggestions though:
- Looking at Earth, Cfb transitions straight into Csb. You have an "intermediate layer" of Cfa between those along the western coast. "Cb" is a distinct temperature category that is dependent on termperature, so the transition should be Cb->Ca, rather than Cb->Ca->Cb->Ca.

- Also, Cc climates are extremely rare on Earth, I think you should probably replace Cfc with Cfb or Dfb. Having a Cc climate basically means that an area has no real summer or winter, the yearly temperature hovers between 0-18 degrees Celsius. For fantasy mapping I think Cc climates are best reserved for mountains, the Sothern Andees is one of the few places where they exist on Earth.

[Deadshade]

Your vientos are opposite of what they should be. That's why the precipitations are also off.

In the first cell (broadly between equator and 30° N) the air RISES at equator. It then travels northwards in HIGH ALTITUDE and sinks around 30° N. To close the loop it then travels on ground towards SW (the Coriolis force deviates it to W). So the winds between 0 and 30 go from NE to SW while you did them from SE to NW. I remember your map and I think I told you that around 30° N just north of the huge mountain range you will have a mother of all deserts.

In the second cell (broadly from 30° to 60°) the air rises at 60° (because of adiabatic expansion, it creates precipitation) and travels in high altitude southwards towards the boundary with the first cell. There it sinks and to close the loop travels back on ground to the NE (Coriolis here deviates to E).
So the dominating winds between 30 and 60 are from SW to NE while you did them from NW to SE.

For more details about atmospheric circulation click on the tutorial in my signature.

To the question Winter/summer.
Why would you want to do that ?
But if you wanted really to do it then there are basically only 2 seasonal large scale features to consider.

1) The first cell doesn't rise exactly at equator. It rises at a line called ITCZ. And ITCZ oscillates between a position N of equator in summer and S of equator in winter (seasons are here considered in the norther hemisphere).
So your winter and summer maps would have different ITCZ positions from where follow precipitation and temperature.

2) Monsoon like oscillations. These happen around tropics when a very large land mass borders a very large water mass. In summer air rises over hot land and sinks over cold ocean. From that follows a very humid airflow from ocean to land and the adiabatic expansion over land creates huge precipitations.
In winter the cycle reverses because oceans' températures vary little while land cools massively down. The air then rises over ocean and sinks over land. Consequence are very dry winters.

Btw your map is still very nice.

[Ilanthar]

Hey Facubaci, glad to see you back. Why not showing your maps directly in your post? You'll probably have more comments if people don't have to click on a link and can directly view the pictures.

[Facubaci]

Charger:
-I thought that putting the latitude, longitude and kilometric scale on one map was enough. I'll add them to the following maps.
-With ocean currents I don't have idea actually. I'll investigate it in a tutorial.
-The size of the continent can be calculated with the kilometric scale that there's in the rainfall map. However the size, without the west large island and the north island, would be around 9200km x 4800km.
-The weather map was made by Azelor. But if Cfa "intermediate layer" between Cfb and Csb is incorrect, I'll take it off.
-I'll change the northern climate Cfb to a Cfb or Dfb.
Thank you!

Deadshade:
-What do you think about this correction of the winds? (sorry for using Paint, this notebook doesn't support PS)
-Thanks for the tutorial, I'll take a look.
-I wish I knew how vary precipitation and temperature depending it's summer or winter. On the map of the weather, Azelor drew the ITCZ line. Do monsoons affect to my map?
Thank you!

Ilanthar:
-Yes, I am here again to try to end this issue with the climates and move to invent in the map. I tried to upload photos directly to the post; I couldn't because they were too heavy. I have already reduced.
Thank you!


Now, how the rainfall map change with these wind currents?

[Charerg]

Well, if your landmass is about the size of Asia (circa 44M square kilometers), the Monsoon cycle would probably have a pretty significant effect. Actually, considering that your landmass is situated just north of the equatorial waters, I think the monsoon effect would be even dominant. Anyway, here's my suggestion for Summer winds (sorry if it's a bit rough, but you should get the idea):



Regarding rainfall the area covered by the summer Monsoon winds should rain a lot in summer, but be largely dry in winter (when the Monsoon effect reverses, and winds blow from land to ocean, being dry air). Your best bet is probably to look at India and southeastern Asia in general if you want the specific rainfall amounts.

[Facubaci]

I made these little maps using the tutorial The Climate Cookbook. I don't know if they are correct.

Maps of the areas of high and low pressure in winter and summer:



Maps of the main currents of wind in winter and summer (similar to what you said, Charerg):



Map of ocean currents (I have no idea):



And I upload the map without any changes so everyone can draw on it:


I'll take a look at the Indian and southeastern Asia rainfalls and I'll do a new map of rainfalls well done, I hope.
Thanks!

[Charerg]

It's a step forward but some corrections are needed. The biggest correction is that oceanic high pressure centers always show up on the eastern side of an ocean. For example, the Atlantic high pressure center shows up in the Canary Islands region (essentially, it fluctuates north of 30 N in summer, south of 30 N in winter). This means that in winter, the low pressure center west of the continent should be a high pressure center. And in summer, the high pressure center east of the continent shouldn't exist. Also, dominant winds are going to generally follow their "dominant directions" so winds south of 30 will blow from the east to west, and north of 30 from west to east. Of course they do somewhat deviate depending on the position of the pressure centers, but they won't make an "U" loop (except in rare cases, maybe). Of course, this is mainly true when talking about "average winds". Since the high pressure centers are on the eastern side of the oceans, the western sides of continents tend to be drier (compare say, eastern USA with the western part).

Here's what I think the oceanic currents should be: red for warm, blue for cold, cyan for neutral.

[Deadshade]

Deadshade:
-What do you think about this correction of the winds? (sorry for using Paint, this notebook doesn't support PS)
-Thanks for the tutorial, I'll take a look.
-I wish I knew how vary precipitation and temperature depending it's summer or winter. On the map of the weather, Azelor drew the ITCZ line. Do monsoons affect to my map?
Thank you!

YEs this circulation is correct (with an ITCZ at equator).
In summer everything would translate as is towards the North and in winter towards the South.
Precipitation at least qualitatively is easy. Rising air always means precipitation and sinking air doesn't. This is the engine of both the Hadley cell (the first one between equator and 30°) and of the monsoons. Orographic lift (when air rises along a mountain's slope) is another demonstration of this principle.
To calculate the theoretical AMOUNT of precipitation / year is a very difficult business and to make a model of that you'd need quite Advanced physics. Afaik Azelor is tackling that with a simplified model.

That's why I always recommended to create a small number of precipitation categories (ameasured in mm/year) : very low, low , average, high, very high or even just low, average, high and to simply apply these categories according to the large scale atmospheric circulation .
F.ex equator always high, 30° always low, 60° it dépends whether it is the east or west side of continents etc.

One of the main conséquences is that you'll have a mf....er of a desert right N of your mountain range so that there will be no rivers flowing from the mountains to the north. Certainly not in the central part.

[Charerg]

One of the main conséquences is that you'll have a mf....er of a desert right N of your mountain range so that there will be no rivers flowing from the mountains to the north. Certainly not in the central part.

Actually, there could well be rivers. The rivers feeding the Aral sea (Amu Darya and Syr Darya) and ones that feed the lakes of the Tarim basin all originate in mountains, even though they are on the "rain shadow" side. Large mountains are going to have ice caps that will produce water during spring and summer when the ice partially melts. Though it may be that the said rivers sort of "dry up" before reaching the ocean, that can happen with large desert areas. Although there shouldn't be too many (major) rivers.