Task 1 , Process

Forecast in Australia

The diagram below shows how the Australian Bureau of Meteorology collects up- to-theminute information on the weather in order to produce reliable forecasts.

The figure illustrates the process used by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to forecast the weather.

There are four stages in the process, beginning with the collection of information about the weather. This information is then analysed, prepared for presentation, and finally broadcast to the public.

Looking at the first and second stages of the process, there are three ways of collecting weather data and three ways of analysing it. Firstly, incoming information can be received by satellite and presented for analysis as a satellite photo. The same data can also be passed to a radar station and presented on a radar screen or synoptic chart. Secondly, incoming information may be collected directly by radar and analysed on a radar screen or synoptic chart. Finally, drifting buoys also receive data which can be shown on a synoptic chart.

At the third stage of the process, the weather broadcast is prepared on computers. Finally, it is delivered to the public on television, on the radio, or as a recorded telephone announcement.

6.3. Brick manufactuting

At the beginning of the process, clay is dug from the ground. The clay is put through a metal grid, and it passes onto a roller where it is mixed with sand and water. After that, the clay can be shaped into bricks in two ways: either it is put in a mould, or a wire cutter is used.

At the fourth stage in the process, the clay bricks are placed in a drying oven for one to two days. Next, the bricks are heated in a kiln at a moderate temperature (200 – 900 degrees Celsius) and then at a high temperature (up to 1300 degrees), before spending two to three days in a cooling chamber. Finally, the finished bricks are packaged and delivered.

6.4. Water cycle

The diagram below shows the water cycle, which is the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth.

The picture illustrates the way in which water passes from ocean to air to land during the natural process known as the water cycle. Three main stages are shown on the diagram. Ocean water evaporates, falls as rain, and eventually runs back into the oceans again.

Beginning at the evaporation stage, we can see that 80% of water vapour in the air comes from the oceans. Heat from the sun causes water to evaporate, and water vapour condenses to form clouds. At the second stage, labelled ‘precipitation’ on the diagram, water falls as rain or snow.

At the third stage in the cycle, rainwater may take various paths. Some of it may fall into lakes or return to the oceans via ‘surface runoff’. Otherwise, rainwater may filter through the ground, reaching the impervious layer of the earth. Salt water intrusion is shown to take place just before groundwater passes into the oceans to complete the cycle.