ENVS 3010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Shortwave Radiation, Radiative Forcing, Shortwave Radio

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Environmental Sciences
• Course: ENVS 3010

Document Summary

Lecture learning outcomes: define radiative forcings, identify aerosols and how they affect climate, understand how land use changes are affecting albedo. Sunlight emitted by the sun is short wave radiation. Shortwave radiation is the wavelength of energy produced by a body depends on its temperature. The sun is very hot, so it would have mostly high energy radiation. Longwave radiation is shortwave energy that gets absorbed by the surface and it is partly reradiated as heat (thermal infrared). Important to remember that the sun emits shortwave radiation and then it reemitted as longwave radiation or heat. The sun will emit high energy shortwave radiation that passes through greenhouse gases. Important part to note is that 100% of the energy released by the sun is shortwave radiation. Overall, only about of the radiation emitting by the sun is reaching the earth"s surface.