Standard #41: SC.6.E.7.5 Explain how energy provided by the Sun influences global patterns of atmospheric movement and the temperature differences between air, water, and land.
Summary: Explain how energy from the Sun effects global atmospheric patterns and the differences in temperature between air, water, and land. Vocabulary: convection-the transfer of heat by the circulation or movement of the heated parts of a liquid or gas. convection current-the transfer of heat by the mass movement of heated particles from an area of warmer particles into an area of cooler particles conduction-heat transferred by "touch" atmosphere-the gaseous envelope surrounding the earth; the air. Notes: The energy provided by the sun influences global patterns in atmospheric movement by the fact that the sun's energy(which is thermal energy; heat) heats up the air, water, and land which effects the wind in the atmosphere. It effects the wind by the fact that since the energy from the sun heats up water, land, and air, it creates convection currents in atmosphere that we feel as wind. These convection currents are made when the air is heated up through conduction by the water and land because, heat travels by going from warmer to colder objects or molecules, so that means the warm molecules in the water and land interact with the molecules in the air by "touching" them, which in the end, heats up the air molecules trough conduction and makes the convection currents in the atmosphere. Another way those convection currents are made is simply by the fact that the air is heated up by the sun's energy and the warm air closer to the equator moves up to the poles, and the colder air near the poles moves down to the equator, and this process is repeated over and over again. Temperature Differences: For the most part water is warmer than land because it absorbs more heat than land does, and keeps it in longer. Land reflects most heat and sends it into the atmosphere where it is absorb(even though it keeps heat in, there isn't very much of it and it loses it over time faster than water). Air absorbs more heat and cold temperatures than water and land, it doesn't keep the heat in if the temperature changes, it changes with the temperature(mostly because there is less sunlight, and it depends on if that side of the planet is facing the sun or not). |