Chapter Twelve: Earth’s Atmosphere Lesson 2: Energy ...

[Pages:3]Chapter Twelve: Earth's Atmosphere Lesson 2: Energy Transfer in the Atmosphere

Radiation: the transfer of energy by electromagnetic waves Sun's energy travels 148 million km in only 8 minutes

Electromagnetic Spectrum:

Visible Light: majority of sunlight is visible light At Earth's surface it is converted to thermal energy (heat)

Gases and particles absorb 20% of incoming solar radiation Visible light must be converted to infrared radiation before it can be absorbed

Bright surfaces reflect incoming radiation (return light back to space) Clouds, snow-covered areas, and icy or rocky surfaces are especially reflective

Greenhouse Effect: Some of the gases in the atmosphere prevent some of Earth's Infrared energy from escaping back to space

o Water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane are common greenhouse gases

3 types of thermal energy transfer: 1. Radiation 2. Conduction: the transfer of thermal energy by collisions between particles of matter a. Particles must be close enough to touch to transfer energy 3. Convection: the transfer of thermal energy by the movement of particles within matter a. Warm air rises and cool air sinks

Latent heat: Water is the only substance that can exist as a solid, liquid, and gas at the temperature ranges on Earth

Air is constantly moving Stability: describes whether circulating air motions will be strong or weak

Stable air ? circulating air motions are weak Unstable air ? circulating air motions are strong

o Unstable conditions often occur on warm, sunny afternoons which leads to thunderstorms

Temperature inversion: occurs in the troposphere when temperature increases as altitude increases

A layer of cooler air is trapped by a layer of warm air above it

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download