GIS UNM CE547 Spring 2006

Assignment 2

Here we are examining data from evaporation pans across the state of New Mexico. We begin by looking at the annual sums at each station. This gives us an overall impression of interstate variability over long periods of time. We need the text to not be obscured by or lost in the background or symbol colors. Yellow is commonly used in movie subtitles. While not a particularly attractive color, yellow is effective at drawing attention to the information that it represents.

Nextly, we examine intrayear variability. By selecting the stations with maximum and minimum annual evaporation, we can sample differing conditions across the state. Watching these values move across the year, we see that they follow a clear yearly periodicity, with a minumum in the winter and a maximum in the summer. While not entirely unexpected, the graph provides a visual impression of the magnitude of this periodicity. Though numerical analysis would be required to make quantitative claims, it appears here that the difference in pan evaporation between summer and winter is greater at Avalon Lake than it is at Santa Fe.