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What happens to light energy as it reaches Earth?
The energy that reaches the Earth’s surface (primarily visible light) is absorbed by the Earth. This increases the temperature of the Earth and then that absorbed energy is released as heat.
What impact does more solar energy reaching its surface have on earth?
The absorbed sunlight drives photosynthesis, fuels evaporation, melts snow and ice, and warms the Earth system. Solar power drives Earth’s climate. Energy from the Sun heats the surface, warms the atmosphere, and powers the ocean currents.
Which part of the Earth receives less light?
Latitude is the measurement of the distance of a location on the Earth from the equator. The further away from the equator that a location resides, the less sunlight that this location receives.
How would a decrease in the stratosphere affect the radiation received at Earth’s surface?
Ozone is the combination of three oxygen atoms into a single molecule (O3). It is a gas produced naturally in the stratosphere where it strongly absorbs incoming UV radiation. But as stratospheric ozone decreases, UV radiation is allowed to pass through, and exposure at the Earth’s surface increases.
What causes the earth’s energy balance to change?
Many factors, both natural and human, can cause changes in Earth’s energy balance, including: Variations in the sun’s energy reaching Earth Changes in the reflectivity of Earth’s atmosphere and surface Changes in the greenhouse effect, which affects the amount of heat retained by Earth’s atmosphere
What happens to infrared radiation when it reaches the Earth?
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. However, since the Earth is much cooler than the Sun, its radiating energy is much weaker (long wavelength) infrared energy.
What happens to sunlight when it reaches Earth?
When sunlight reaches Earth’s surface, it can either be reflected back into space or absorbed by Earth. Once absorbed, the planet releases some of the energy back into the atmosphere as heat (also called infrared radiation).
How can we reduce the amount of sunlight on Earth by 2%?
In order to reduce the sunlight we receive at Earth’s surface by 2%, we’d have to stop approximately 2% of the sunlight headed towards Earth at or near the L1 Lagrange point. That corresponds to about 1 million square kilometers, or an area comparable to the disk of the full Moon: an enormous amount to cover.