A geographical map is a fairly large andeasily perceived product, which contains a huge amount of useful information. That all this information was conveniently "read", the cartographers came up with a huge arsenal of special conventional signs. And in this article we will talk about one of them.
What is an isotherm in geography and cartography? How does it look and what information does it carry?
On geographic maps you can show not onlyreal objects (for example, mountains or seas), but also various phenomena, as well as processes (for example, the amount of precipitation in a particular area). For this, isolines (from the Greek word ισος - "equal"). In cartography, there are several dozens of different isolines. One of them is an isotherm.
What is an isotherm?In geography, these are conditional lines connecting points on the map with the same temperature of air. With their help, scientists evaluate and compare the climatic characteristics of certain regions of the planet. Thus, isotherms are widely used in meteorology, climatology, and also in geography.
What is an isotherm from a philological point of view? This term consists of two ancient Greek words: "isos" - "equal, equal" and "terma" - "heat." As a rule, there are two types of isotherms:
So, what is the isotherm in geography, we figured out. Now let's find out how they are applied to a geographic map.
Here everything is extremely simple.First, information is gathered from ground-based meteorological observation points. Then, the locations of these points and the values of the given parameter at each specific point are plotted on the cartographic basis (in our case it is the air temperature). Further points with the same values are connected by smooth curves, isotherms.
In the ruptures of these lines (and also at their ends)sign the appropriate temperature values. To make the map more intuitive, the spaces between isotherms are often filled with colors, changing their tone and saturation.
Isotherms - very convenient cartographictool. They are simple, intuitive and practically do not require explanations in the map legend. They are well combined with many other cartographic signs and are ideal for creating computer cards.
