Effect of sun angle on climate

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Effect of sun angle on climate

The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of sun angle of climate, as the angle

Angle of incidence

Sunlight

Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total spectroscopy of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is Filter ed through the Earth's atmosphere, and the solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon....
strikes the earth varies by location, time of day, and season

Season

A season is one of the major divisions of the year, generally based on yearly periodic changes in weather.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the Axial tilt....
due to the earth's orbit around the sun and the earth's revolution around its tilted axis. Seasonal change in the angle of sunlight, caused by the tilt of the earth's axis, is the basic mechanism that results in warmer weather in summer than in winter.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Effect of sun angle on climate'

Start a new discussion about 'Effect of sun angle on climate'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of sun angle of climate, as the angle

Angle of incidence

Sunlight

Season

Day length

Day length, or length of day, or length of daytime, refers to the time each day from the moment the upper limb of the sun's disk appears above the horizon during sunrise to the moment when the upper limb disappears below the horizon during sunset....
is another factor. (See also season

Season

Geometry of sun angle

When sunlight shines on the earth at a lower angle

Angle of incidence

Angle of incidence is a measure of deviation of something from "straight on", for example:* in the approach of a ray to a surface, or* the angle at which the wing or Stabilizer of an airplane is installed on the fuselage, measured relative to the axis of the fuselage....
(sun closer to the horizon), the energy of the sunlight is spread over a larger area, and is therefore weaker than if the sun is higher overhead and the energy is concentrated on a smaller area. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 2 depicts a sunbeam one mile wide falling on the ground from directly overhead, and another hitting the ground at a 30° angle. Trigonometry

Trigonometry

Trigonometry is a branch of mathematics that deals with triangle s, particularly those plane triangles in which one angle has 90 degrees . Trigonometry deals with relationships between the sides and the angles of triangles and with the trigonometric functions, which describe those relationships....
tells us that the sine

Siné

Maurice Sinet, known as Sin? is a France cartoonist.As a young man he studied drawing and graphic arts, earning his life as a cabaret singer....
of a 30° angle is 1/2, whereas the sine of a 90° angle is 1. Therefore, the sunbeam hitting the ground at a 30° angle spreads the same amount of light over twice as much area (if we imagine the sun shining from the south at noon

Noon

Noon is the hour of 12:00 in an observer's local time zone, or more loosely, a time near the middle of the day when workers in many countries take a meal break....
, the north-south width doubles; the east-west width does not). Consequently, the amount of light falling on each square mile is only half as much.

The sunbeam entering at the shallower angle must also travel twice as far through the Earth's atmosphere

Atmosphere

An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, by the gravity of the body, and are retained for a longer duration if gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low....
, which reflects some of the energy back into space.

Figure 3 shows the angle of sunlight striking the earth in the Northern

Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator....
and Southern

Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is south of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half ball'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere south of the celestial equator....
hemispheres when the earth's northern axis is tilted away from the sun, when it is winter in the north and summer in the south.

Technical note

Heat energy

Thermal radiation

Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation emitted from the surface of an object which is due to the object's temperature. Infrared radiation from a common household radiator or electric heater is an example of thermal radiation, as is the light emitted by a glowing incandescent light bulb....
is not received from the Sun. Radiant energy is received and this results in change in energy level

Thermal energy

Thermal energy is a form of energy that manifests itself as an increase of temperature. It is also the sum of sensible heat and latent heat....
of receiving bodies in Earth's domain. Different materials have different properties for transmitting back received energy in the form of heat energy at different rates. Concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, construction aggregate , water , and Chemistry admixtures....
and tar

Tar

Tar is modified resin produced from the wood and roots of pine by destructive distillation under pyrolysis. It is a viscosity black liquid. Production and trade in tar was a major contributor in the economies of Northern Europe and Colonial America....
for example are slow releasers. Most metals are fast releasers.