GEOG 1300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: General Idea, Sulfur Dioxide, Mount Pinatubo
23 Feb 2016
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Document Summary
General idea: solar energy from the troposphere to the earth"s surface, output of light and radiation compared to input of insolation and see how they work together to determine energy budgets. Land and water surfaces, clouds, atmospheric gases and dust all intercept solar energy. Energy flows through weather patterns, ocean currents, and varied vegeation cover all influence solar energy. Specific patterns for deserts, oceans, mountains, plains, rainforests, ice landscapes, and the presence or absence of clouds also influence input and output. Transmission: passage of radiation through the atmosphere or water shortwave radiation input , longwave output. Insolation input: external energy input from the sun that drives our earth-atmosphere system. Includes direct and diffuse radiation (diffuse is just scattered by the atmosphere) Greater insolation occurs in the deserts because of lower cloud cover. As incoming radiation travels towards the earth"s surface, it encounters different densities of gases which physically interact with the radiation which causes a scattered (diffuse) radiation input.
