GEOB 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Axial Tilt, Subsolar Point, Aurora

• School: UBC
• Department: Geographical Biogeosciences
• Course: GEOB 102
• Professor: Simon Donner

Document Summary

Geob. 102@ubc. ca *labs held only the week of assignments. The sun, the seasons and the atmosphere ch2-3. Solar system formed from a large, slowly rotating nebula . The orbits of the earth and other planets are elliptical. Perihelion: earth is closest to the sun (jan 3) winter. Aphelion: earth farthest from the sun (july 4) summer. Contains 99. 9% of all matter from original nebula. Solar mass is converted to energy by fusion of hydrogen atoms. Emits charged particles, called the solar wind northern lights (aurora borealis) Particles coming off the sun, interacting with atmosphere. Seasonality refers to variation in the sun"s altitude (angle above the horizon) and changing length of daylight that occurs over the year. Insolation (incoming solar radiation) reaches a maximum when the sun is at the subsolar point, or directly overhead. Anywhere within the tropics, depending on where you are, what time of year. Sun is often directly over head in tarawa, kiribati (kiribis)