Heating of the Earth's Atmosphere

34 0F Juneau, AK

70 0F Los Angeles, CA

86 0F Manaus, Brazil

83 0F Buenos Aires, Argentina

How can you explain the difference in the average high temperatures for February for the cities below.

Do all locations on Earth receive equal amounts of solar radiation?

Brainstorm reasons the different locations on earth do not recieve the same amount of solar radiation?

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Please note - the earth's orbit around the sun is almost perfectly circular.

Where/when does the earth receive direct sunlight?

Where/when is the sun's energy more spread out?

·Insolation (Incoming solar radiation)

http://www.solarpanelsplus.com/solar-panels/large-insolation-map.html

This picture shows the average radiant energy/day

·Earth’s surface heats the atmosphere unequally due to variations in:

·intensity of solar radiation (caused by variations in angle of sunlight which varies with time of day, latitude, and season); ·characteristics of the surface materials absorbing the energy (such as color, texture, transparency, states of matter, and specific heat); and ·duration of solar radiation which varies with seasons and latitude.

http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/climate/greenhouse_effect_gases.html

http://science-edu.larc.nasa.gov/EDDOCS/images/Erb/components2.gif

Which absorbs more solar energy, the atmosphere or earth's surface?p

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What can you say about Conservation of Energy for the incoming and outgoing solar energy?

pu

ll

Why doesn't the temperature of the planets decrease the further from the sun?