Having understood what is insolation, let's know more about its fundamental characteristics: Contact online >>
Having understood what is insolation, let''s know more about its fundamental characteristics:
Most of the energy obtained by the earth’s surface is in short wavelengths. The energy that the earth gets from the sun is known as insolation or incoming solar radiation. The sun’s rays fall at the top of the atmosphere obliquely because the planet is a geoid, and the earth captures only a little part of the sun’s energy. At the top of its atmosphere, the planet receives an average of 1.94 calories per sq. cm each minute.
In simple terms, insolation can be defined as the incoming solar radiation from the sun, which is received on earth in short waves. As the size of the earth and its distance from the sun are both relatively small, it receives significantly less quantity of insolation.
Only two billionths of a percent of total solar radiation reach the earth’s surface, which is two units of energy out of 1,000,00,000 units of energy radiated by the sun! This small part of solar radiation is critical, since it is the primary source of energy on the planet for most physical and biological processes. Furthermore, a small amount of insolation is also absorbed by dust particles, ozone, water vapour, and other gases in the atmosphere.
Having understood what is insolation, let''s know more about its fundamental characteristics:
1) Only 51% of the sun’s insolation reaches the earth’s surface.
Earth’s surface does not receive the amount of insolation uniformly. It varies across locations on the planet. Annual insolation is highest in the tropical zone. It steadily decreases from the tropics to the poles. Moreover, insolation is lesser in winters than in summers.
The amount of insolation received is influenced by the following factors:
Because the Earth is spherical, the rays of the sun fall on the surface at various angles in different locations. The angle of incidence is the angle formed at a place by the rays of the sun and the tangent of the earth’s circle. It has two effects on insolation-
The day varies depending on where you are and the ongoing season. It determines how much sunlight reaches the earth’s surface. The amount of insolation received is proportional to the length of the day.
The amount of insolation reaching the earth’s surface is also determined by the atmosphere’s transparency. The atmosphere''s transparency is affected by the cloud cover, dust particles, water vapour, and cloud thickness. For example, thick clouds in the sky prevent sunlight from reaching the earth, while a clear sky allows the sunlight to reach the surface easily.
Four different heating processes cause the heating of the atmosphere, viz—Radiation, Conduction, Convection and Advection.
Conduction is the process of transfer of heat energy from a warmer object to a colder object. The zone of contact between the atmosphere and the earth’s surface is where conduction occurs in the atmosphere.
Heat is transferred by moving a mass or substance from one place to another. Convection is the movement of air from one location to another, usually in a vertical direction.
Advection is the horizontal movement of heat by winds. If a location is in the path of warm winds, the temperature of the location will rise. If the location is the path of cold winds, the temperature will drop.
We’ve learned that the sun is the Earth’s primary energy source. Insolation is the term for the energy from the sun that reaches the earth in short waves. The amount of insolation is determined by three factors: angle of incidence, length of the day, and the atmosphere’s transparency. Radiation, conduction, convection, and advection are the processes that contribute to the heating and cooling of the atmosphere.
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The Earth’s surface and atmosphere absorb roughly 71% of sunlight. The molecules of the object or surface it strikes vibrate quicker as a result of the absorption of sunlight, raising the temperature.
In general, there are two ways to express insolation. The average quantity of energy received by a region each day is measured in kilowatt-hours per square meter (kWh/m2). Watts per square meter (W/m2) is another measurement that shows the average amount of energy received by a location over the course of a year.
Tropical deserts receive the maximum quantity of insolation on the earth’s surface. The most insolation is received over the subtropical deserts, which have the least number of clouds.
The amount of sunlight reaching different sections of the Earth’s surface varies. At the equator, sunrays fall on the earth’s surface directly. As a result, the rays are focused on a narrow area. The area gets heated more because sunlight touches it directly.
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Insolation is the sunlight that reaches the Earth. It comes in short waves from the sun. Because the Earth is small and not very far from the sun, it gets a very tiny amount of this sunlight. Only two billionths of a percent of the sun’s total energy reaches the Earth''s surface, which means just two units of energy out of 100 million. This small amount is very important because it provides most of the energy required for life and many processes on our planet. Some sunlight is also absorbed by dust, ozone, water vapor, and other gases in the atmosphere.
Solar insolation, or sunlight, is not the same everywhere on Earth. Several factors determine how much sunlight different places get. One important measure is the solar constant, which tells us how much solar energy reaches the top of the atmosphere. The main factors that affect insolation include changes in the land’s shape, like mountains and valleys. Differences in elevation, the angle of the ground, and nearby hills or buildings can create strong local differences in sunlight. The solar constant is about 1370 Watts per square meter at the thermopause, the boundary between two layers of the atmosphere. This value can change slightly due to sunspots, which are dark spots on the sun that can impact its energy output.
The angle at which the Sun’s rays hit the Earth’s surface changes based on where you are. In higher latitudes (closer to the poles), the angle is smaller, which means less sunlight reaches the ground. This is one reason why the equator is warmer than the poles.
The length of the day also affects how much sunlight reaches the Earth. The longer the day, the more sunlight there is. At the equator, days are always about 12 hours long, but as you move toward the poles, the difference between day and night gets bigger.
In the far north and south, there are two special events:
The Earth orbits the Sun in an oval shape. This shape changes slightly in a cycle that lasts about 100,000 years. When the Earth’s orbit is more circular, it gets 23% more sunlight than when it is more elongated.
Read More: Heat Transfer
Local differences in sunlight happen because of things like height, the angle of the land, and nearby hills blocking the sun. For example, in the northern hemisphere south-facing slopes get more sunlight and warm winds, making them warmer and drier than north-facing slopes.
In the Swiss Alps, farmers grow more crops on south-facing slopes. In the Himalayas, south-facing slopes are warm, wet, and have forests, while north-facing slopes are cold, dry, and often covered in ice. On hills with some sunlight, you can see more plants and people.
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