AOSC 123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Inverse-Square Law

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Atmospheric and Oceanic Science
• Course: AOSC 123
• Professor: rachelpinker

Document Summary

Sun-earth distance: factors that determine amount of energy received on earth. The inverse square law: the further you go, the same energy spread over larger area (inversely proportional to distance squared) Sun elevation law: when the sun is higher in the sky perpendicular to earth, energy distributed over smaller area. If sun is low in the sky, same energy distributed over larger area. Seasons: the orientation of the earth towards the sun also determines how much energy is received at the surface. Radiation from the sun is an electromagnetic wave. Visible spectrum: spectral distribution of the light from the sun. In the atmosphere, all the wavelengths behave the same way. However, when they encounter dense obstacle/water/glass each wavelength is refracted diferently and will emerge as a diferent color.