Key Factors That Influences The Elequal Heating Of The Earth By The Sun

The unequal heating of the earth by the sun is due to the earth’s relationship with the sun and the solar energy that the sun provides. One of the key factors that influences the unequal heating is due to the angle at which the sun hits earth. Earth is shaped as an oblate sphere that rotates around its tilted 23-degree axis from east to west. One rotation around its axis is twenty-four hours, or one day. The earth also rotates around the sun as a revolution or a year. Depending on the earth’s orbit around the sun, the axis may be inclined toward or away from the sun; this is known as the angle of incidence. The angle at which the sun hits earth changes daily as day length either becomes shorter or longer, resulting in a change of season. The

Describe the roles that water vapor, carbon dioxide, and particulates play in the atmospheric process.

Water vapor, carbon dioxide, and particulates all play a role in the atmospheric process as variable gases that make up the troposphere. These gases have huge influences on weather and climate. As solar energy enters through the atmosphere in shortwave radiation, some of the radiation is reflected back into space or is absorbed by the earth’s surface. This energy is then released by the earth’s surface in long wave radiation. These gases affect the amount of solar energy that can reach the earth’s surface as well as keep in the amount of long wave radiation that the earth’s surface is trying to emit back into space. Water vapor as well as carbon dioxide absorbs this long-wave radiation keeping the energy in the atmosphere. This is leading to an increase in temperatures around the world as more carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere by combustion of carbon in coal and petroleum (Hess & McKnight, 57-58). Particulates or aerosols are solid or liquid droplets that enter earth’s atmosphere through natural or anthropogenic reasons. Some of the droplets either absorb the solar radiation or reflect back into space, decreasing the amount of radiation that reaches the earth’s surface. They also can absorb water resulting in water vapor that forms clouds. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, and particulates play a key role in the atmospheric process by affecting weather and climate

Explain WHY land heats up and cools more rapidly than water does.

Land heats up and cools more rapidly than water does due several reasons. One is because water has a higher specific heat than land. Specific heat is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance by 1 degree Celsius (Hess & McKnight, 94). Water has a specific heat 5 times greater than land does. So land has a low specific heat making it heat up faster and to a higher temperature than water. The second reason is due to transmission of solar radiation. Water has a higher transmission rate than land. Meaning that solar radiation penetrates deeper into the water spreading the energy out over a greater volume. On land solar radiation hits at a shallow, concentrated point creating hotter temperatures. Because land has a low transmission rate, energy is released away more quickly than water, resulting in a cooler temperature. The third reason is due to mobility. Water is extremely mobile versus land, which has no mobility. As solar radiation transmits into the water, convection happens where warm water mixes with the colder water, spreading the energy vertically and horizontally through the water. Land is able to conduct the energy, but poorly, resulting in an increase of heat at the surface. The last reason land heats up more quickly than water is due to evaporation. Water has a higher evaporation rate due to moisture. Land on the other hand has a low evaporation