Table of Contents
What happens to energy that is reflected from the atmosphere?
When it reaches the Earth, some is reflected back to space by clouds, some is absorbed by the atmosphere, and some is absorbed at the Earth’s surface. The earth-atmosphere energy balance is achieved as the energy received from the Sun balances the energy lost by the Earth back into space.
What do you think would happen to the Earth’s energy balance if the concentration of greenhouse gases increases explain what law explains your response?
Increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations give rise to an imbalance in Earth’s energy budget by initially reducing the amount of emitted thermal infra-red radiation. The result of this imbalance is an accumulation of excess energy in the Earth system over time.
What type of energy is reflected by our atmosphere?
Heat at Earth’s Surface About 3\% of the energy that strikes the ground is reflected back into the atmosphere. The rest is absorbed by rocks, soil, and water and then radiated back into the air as heat. These infrared wavelengths can only be seen by infrared sensors.
What would happen if the makeup of the atmosphere changed?
The remaining water would freeze. Eventually (long after surface life had died), solar radiation would break atmospheric water into oxygen, which would react with carbon on the Earth to form carbon dioxide. Organisms that need air to breathe would die. Plants and land animals would die.
How does matter in energy flow in the atmosphere?
Energy is transferred from the sun to Earth via electromagnetic waves, or radiation. Most of the energy that passes through the upper atmosphere and reaches Earth’s surface is in two forms, visible and infrared light. The transfer of energy from one region to another is called heat.
What happens with the energy that enters the Earth’s atmosphere and to the surface?
About 23\% of incoming energy is absorbed in the atmosphere by atmospheric gases, dust, and other particles. The remaining 48\% is absorbed at the surface.
What would happen if the Earth’s energy budget was not balanced?
If the Earth system is changed either through natural phenomena — such as volcanoes — or man’s activities and an imbalance in the Earth’s energy budget occurs, the Earth’s temperature will eventually increase or decrease in order to restore an energy balance.
What would happen to the total amount of energy in the Earth system and to global average temperature?
So when there is less energy being redirected, more energy exits the system, leading to less energy in the Earths system. There is less energy absorbed by the surface, so global average temperatures would decrease.
What might happen if the greenhouse effect didn’t exist?
These include water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Without any greenhouse gases, Earth would be an icy wasteland. Greenhouse gases keep our planet livable by holding onto some of Earth’s heat energy so that it doesn’t all escape into space. This heat trapping is known as the greenhouse effect.
What would happen if Earth had no atmosphere?
If there were no atmosphere around the earth, the temperature would get affected. In the absence of atmosphere, there would be no life, no rains, no winds, no fires and also no ozone layer that would be used as a protection layer against harmful radiations.
How does matter and energy flow in the atmosphere by the movement of air due to the difference in temperature?
Wind caused by differences in temperature is known as convection or advection. In the atmosphere, convection transfers heat energy from warmer regions near the Earth’s surface to regions higher up in the atmosphere away from the heating influence of the Earth’s surface.