This presentation describes the processes affecting the movement of insolation of energy through the atmosphere and how energy from the Sun is absorbed by the Earth.

1. What Happens to
Insolation?
Intro to Physical Geography

2. Energy Basics
 Energy Pathways and Principles
 Shortwave energy in from the Sun (ultraviolet, visible
light, and near-infrared)
 Longwave energy out from Earth (thermal infrared)
 Transmission
 The passage of energy through atmosphere or water
 Insolation input
 All radiation received at Earth’s surface – direct and
indirect

3. What happens to insolation?
 Scattering (diffuse radiation)
 Changing direction of light’s
movement,
without altering its wavelengths
 Rayleigh scattering makes our skies
look
blue

4. Wavelengths
Because blue light
has a shorter
wavelength it
scatters more easily.
Image from Wavelength image from
http://missionscience.nasa.gov/ems/09_visible Universe by Freedman
light.html and Kaufmann.

5. What Happens to Insolation?
 Refraction
 Change in speed and direction of light as insolation travels
from space through the atmosphere
 Examples: Rainbows and mirages

6. What happens to insolation?
 Some energy is reflected without being absorbed
 So we need to think about albedo (how reflective a
surface is)
 Clouds and aerosols have unpredictable albedos
 What types of surfaces are most reflective? What
types of surfaces absorb more energy?

7. Albedo Values

8. Clouds and Albedo
Bottom images from
http://earthobservatory.nasa.go
v/Features/Clouds/clouds4.php

9. Changes in albedo

10. What happens to energy that
reaches the surface?
 Absorption – the assimilation of radiation by
molecules of matter and conversion to different
kinds of energy.
• Heat is energy produced by the motion of atoms
and molecules.
• Heat flows from a region of higher temperature
to a region of colder temperature, but not the
other way around.
• Four types of heat transfer:
• conduction, convection, advection, and
radiation.

11. Methods of Heat Transfer