1. Heating Earth’s Surface and Atmosphere
The Atmosphere 10e Lutgens & Tarbuck Power Point by Michael C. LoPresto

2. Solar Energy Solar Energy Solar (sun) energy is heat energy.
Heat energy is just one of many forms of energy: mechanical, kinetic, radioactive, electrical, chemical…
Solar energy is not distributed evenly on Earth.
It varies with latitude, time of day, and season.
Solar Energy

3. What causes the seasons?

4. The Earth has Seasons because…..
The length of the day changes during our orbital year.
Angle of the sun changes during our orbital year.
The amount of solar energy we receive changes during our solar year.
This is because we are TILTED 23.5 ° on our axis

5. Sun Angle
Variation
with
Latitude
Is Due to the
Tilt of
Earth’s
Rotational Axis

6. Sun Angles Vary with Latitude

7. High Sun Angles in
the Tropics

8. Medium
Sun Angles at
Midlatitudes

9. Low
Sun Angles in
the Arctic

10. The angle affects the amount of solar energy that is received
Concentrated into a small area
Spread-out into a larger area

11. When solar energy reaches Earth it is either
Insolation
Earth receives only about one two-billionth of the suns total solar energy.
Incoming solar radiation is called insolation.
When solar energy reaches Earth it is either
1. absorbed,
2. reflected / scattered,
3. transmitted through
4. re-radiated

12. The thickness of the atmosphere varies by latitude.
The thicker the atmosphere,
the more the sun’s energy is absorbed, reflected or scattered.
Which decreases intensity.

14. Incoming Solar Radiation?
What Happens to
Incoming Solar Radiation?

15. Reflection and Scattering of Sunlight
Small dust particles and gas molecules in the atmosphere scatter some incoming radiation in all directions. (This explains how light reaches into the area beneath a shade tree, and how a room is lit in the absence of direct sunlight.) Scattering also accounts for the brightness and even the blue color of the daytime sky. (In contrast, bodies like the moon and Mercury—which are without atmospheres—have dark skies and “pitch-black” shadows even during daylight hours.) About half of the solar radiation that is absorbed at Earth’s surface arrives as scattered light.

17. Energy (pg. 41) Energy is defined as…. The capacity to do WORK
Energy MOVES MATTER
Energy can take many forms: chemical, heat, gravitational, electrical, nuclear
Energy can CHANGE from one form to another.

18. 2 Types of Mechanical energy
Kinetic Energy:
Energy of MOTION
Potential energy
STORED energy with the potential to do work.
Due to a high position.

19. Temperature
A quantity that describes how warm or cold an object is…
compared to a standard scale
3 scales: Fahrenheit ((U.S.), Celsius, Kelvin
Measure of the AVERAGE kinetic energy of the atoms in a substance

20. A thermometer measures its own temperature!

21. Incoming Solar Radiation?
What Happens to
Incoming Solar Radiation?

22. Albedo: percent of solar energy that is REFLECTED (based on the characteristics of the surface material)

23. Reflection from Surfaces
of Different Albedo

24. Albedo 1. List two surfaces that have HIGH albedo:
2. List 2 surfaces that have a LOW albedo:

26. Incoming Solar Radiation?
What Happens to
Incoming Solar Radiation?

27. HEAT
The transfer of energy from one object to another or its surroundings due to a temperature difference
Heat always flows from high temperature
to lower temperature
Until the temperatures become equal – thermal equilibrium

28. Heat Transfer
Heat energy can be transferred from the Sun to the atmosphere to the earth in one of three ways: Conduction Convection Radiation

29. Mechanisms of Heat Energy Transfer

30. Convection Transfer of heat energy through a liquid or gas
Convection Transfer of heat energy through a liquid or gas. Is due to different density of the liquid or gas. Warm air is less dense and it rises- Cool air is more dense and it sinks. (Remember thermal convection in the mantle…?)

31. Conduction Transfer of energy through collisions
from faster moving molecules to slower moving molecules.
Air is a poor conductor of heat,
Conduction occurs only between the hot surface and the air immediately above it.

32. Radiation
Transfer of energy through space in the form of electromagnetic radiation. UV
Infrared (heat)
Visible light
Microwave
Gamma
X-ray

34. Electromagnetic Radiation
The Electromagnetic Spectrum

35. Ultraviolet Radiation UV Index monthly values around the globe

36. Radiation from the Sun and Earth

37. Absorptivity of Atmospheric Gases
Gases are selective absorbers
Nitrogen -poor absorber
Oxygen and Ozone- good absorber of UV

38. How we experience most of the heat on Earth:

39. So…. Our atmosphere does NOT get it’s heat directly from sun,
But mostly from energy that is first absorbed by the earth’s surfaces- then
re-adiated as radiant heat

40. So what is with our Greenhouse Gases? Especially CO2…
ultraviolet
infrared

41. Infrared Imaging

42. Clouds and Heating Earth

43. Solar Power

44. Earth’s atmosphere is TRANPARENT to the ultraviolet photons of energy from the sun. The photons of infrared energy re-radiated by the Earth will either be ABSORBED or REFELCTED by these gases therefore trapping some heat close to the Earth’s surface.

45. Heat Budget of Earth’s Atmosphere

47. The Rise of CO2…

48. Temperatures Rise…

51. Calculating Solar Intensity

52. a. Conduction b. convection c. Radiation
A ceiling fan circulates warm air in a room.
Walking barefoot on a hot parking lot
Drying a beach towel on the deck.
Warming in front of a fire place.
Getting sunburned at the Cubs game.
Burning your foot on used sparkler that was left in the grass.

53. Heat or Temperature? Thermometer measures….
Total kinetic energy of all the molecules.

54. List 3 factors that effect the amount of insolation1. 2. 3.

55. Global Warming and Rising Sea Levels
Eskers
The long, winding ridges that formed when sub-glacial streams filled with sand and gravel sediments deposits

56. What’s Causing Global Warming?
Top of Atmosphere 
Heat Incoming 
Heat Outgoing 
Net Heat Input Causes Global Warming

57. What’s Causing Sea Level Rise?
Ice Melt
More Water, More Mass 
Thermal Expansion, More Volume
Heat 
Sea Level Rise

58. Sources of Ice Melt & Potential Impact on Sea Level
Antarctica
6 m
Greenland
0.7 m
Mountain Glaciers

60. Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica is a huge ice sheet “floating” out on top of the more dense Pacific Ocean salt water

62. Why Measure Sea Level Rise? Inundation Will Have a Catastrophic Impact