EARTHSC 2C03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Sensible Heat, Sunspot, Sunscreen
15 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
These waves have both magnetic and electrical properties and we call them electromagnetic waves. (cid:131) electro-magnetic waves travel at speed of light (i. e. 300,000 km per second) and do not require any medium to travel. Wave characteristics: (cid:131) low points in a wave are called troughs (valleys) and high points are called crests (ridges). (cid:131) the horizontal distance between two crests is the wavelength which is expressed by lambda ((cid:79)). 1 (cid:131) wavelength of radiation is generally measured in micrometers ((cid:80)m). 1 (cid:80)m = 0. 000001 = 10 6 m (cid:131) frequency is given by (cid:88) = c/(cid:79) (in s-1 or hz) where c is the speed of light. Radiation interaction at a natural surface is shown in the following figure. Some of the incident radiation flux (r) is reflected, some of it is absorbed and some of it is transmitted through the surface. Radiation passing through the atmosphere also undergoes the same phenomena.
