Learning about and experiencing the marine layer

My EPS 9 (Solar Systems and Planets) class has taken a recent break from astrology to focus on Earth’s atmosphere. In doing so we have looked at the marine layer. This occurs when an air mass forms over the surface of a cool ocean or lake. Because this body of air is higher in density than the warm air above, it becomes trapped below forming a flat layer (NOAA 2011).

This is not a rare phenomenon in Southern California where cool waters moving down from Alaska allow the marine layer to form. Due to a high pressure gradient from desert heating, the marine layer often moves inland engulfing much of the coast in heavy fog.

Last week exactly this happened. For two days Los Angeles became grey and cloudy with poor visibility. While locals find this deeply disturbing, I found it fantastic for two reasons: first it gave us a respite to the glaring sun which has been belching out days with high’s of 27ºC. Secondly because it was very exciting to experience a weather event that, only a few days prior, we had learned about in class.

Un unusual view of UCLA with the marine layer blocking out the Sun

UCLA is not just a brilliant place to study geography; it is also situated in an extraordinarily interesting region to study the geography of, both human and physical. This was one of my key motivations for choosing it as my host university for studying abroad. I am glad that, through my EPS class, I have had yet another chance to engage with my geographical studies first hand.

References

NOAA (2011) ‘The Marine Layer’ (WWW), Silver Spring: NOAA (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/ocean/marine.htm; 26 February 2016).

Winter Quarter Classes

With the mercury gently dropping below 14°C here in Southern California, we enter the winter quarter. As outlined in an earlier post, my rationale for choosing classes while abroad is to explore new fields that I hope will add further breadth and depth to my Geography degree. My choices for the second term are as follows:

Geography 141 - Uneven Development Geographies: Prosperity and Impoverishment in Third World
The purpose of this class is to explore how and why development initiatives across the world have resulted in such a wide variety of outcomes. While I have previously studied development at UCL (GEOG2014), this focussed more on explaining different forms of development, the actors involved and the main theories opposing it. These theories included post-colonialism, post-development, and even critiques of post-development (Escobar 1995; Kothari 2005; Matthews 2004). UCLA’s Geography 141 class focusses more on how livelihoods have been affected by development. I am not only interested in this class for the opportunity to study development from a different perspective. It will also be a great chance to further explore how a topic, and by proxy Geography, is taught differently at my home and host institutions.

Assessment: 10% attendance and participation, 30% mid-term exam, 30% research paper, 30% final exam.

History M155 - History of Los Angeles
As a geographer, Los Angeles is not only a fantastic place to study geography, but also an extraordinarily interesting place to study the geography of. Considered to be the ‘archetypal postmodern city’, urban geography takes a particular interest in Los Angeles (Sardar 1998: 149). History M155 is an excellent opportunity to study how the city came to hold such a glorious moniker. The class examines how forces such as race, culture, gender, class and sexuality came to shape Los Angeles’ history dating back to the colonisation of California by the Spanish in the 1540s.

Assessment: 33.3% mid-term exam, 33.3% paper, 33.3% final exam.

Earth, Planetary, And Space Sciences 9 - Solar System and Planets
Again following Bonnett's (2008) definition of Geography being routed in exploration both in the traditional and non-traditional sense, I have chosen to take a class that looks beyond Earth and at its surroundings. While not directly connected to the human or physical geographies that I have studied in the past, this class will provide a helpful insight into the environment (or lack there of) that Earth occupies. With an exploration of our solar system, galaxy and universe, the scale of Earth and its geographies can be fully put into context.

Assessment: 10% project, 30% labs, 20% in-class exams, 40% final exam.

References

Bonnett, A. (2008) What is Geography?, Los Angeles: Sage.

Escobar, A. (1995) Encountering Development, Princeton: Princeton University.

Kothari, U. ( 2005) ‘From Colonial Administration to Development Studies: a Post-colonial Critique of the History of Development Studies’, in Kothari (ed.) A Radical History of Development Studies, London: Zed Books, 47-66.

Matthews, S. (2004) ‘Post-development theory and the question of alternatives: a view from Africa’, Third World Quarterly, 25, 2, 373-384.

Sardar, Z. (1998) Postmodernism and the Other, London: Pluto Press.