2/6/2025

2025-02-06
The influence of solar radiations. Earth's
radiation balance, Green House effect and
global warming.

Modes of transfer of energy

1. Conduction: Energy Transfer by Contact
Thermal Conduction: Transfer of heat energy
through a material
✓ Thermal energy is always transferred from a
warm to a cold area
Eg.: Making popcorn the in a pan on the
stove.
• Heat is transferred from the pan to the oil,
to the popcorn kernels. Just like Earth’s
surface heat the air as they are in contact.

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2. Convection: Energy Transfer by Circulation

✓ Transfer of thermal energy by the circulation or
movement of a liquid or a gas.
✓ Cool air is more dense and it sinks. Warm air is less dense
and it rises.
✓ The rising and falling of air causes a circular movement
and is called a convection current.
Eg., Making popcorn in a popcorn
popper, the warm air makes the kernels
expand and pop. Just like radiation from
the sun heats the air in the atmosphere.
The warm air rises, allowing cool air to
move underneath it.

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3. Radiation:
Energy Transfer by waves. Transfer of energy as
electromagnetic waves.
✓ Earth receives about two-billionths of the sun’s
energy. This is enough to drive the weather cycle
and make the Earth habitable.
❑Making popcorn in the microwave
The kernels are heated by
microwave radiation from the
microwave causing them to pop
and give off heat.

Surface and Air Temperature Variation:

o Absorbed solar radiation begins to heat the Earth’s

surface shortly after sunrise. As the surface

temperature increases, energy from the warmer
surface slowly is conducted into the cooler soil.

o Conduction is the process by which heat energy is

transferred from warmer to cooler areas by

molecular contact. The interior of solids can be
heated only by conduction.

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Surface and Air Temperature Variation:

o Simultaneously, energy is conducted from

the Earth’s surface to the adjacent cooler air

molecules. As the sun continues rising, more
and more solar energy is absorbed, and the
surface temperature continues to increase.
Also simultaneously, more energy is
conducted into the soil and the overlying air.

o As the air temperature near the surface increases, the

heated air expands, making it less dense than air above it.
This lighter air begins rising while the cooler, denser air
above it starts sinking. When the cooler air reaches the
surface, it is warmed by the surface and rises,
simultaneously allowing cooler air to descend. Thus, tiny
circulation cells are formed that slowly warm a thin layer
of air near the surface.
o As the sun continues rising, solar rays become more
perpendicular to the surface, and surface heating
intensifies. This causes the tiny circulation cells to grow
larger vertically and horizontally.

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Temperature inversion:

o Under normal conditions, temperature usually

decreases with increase in altitude in the troposphere
at a rate of 1 0C for every 165 metres. This is called
normal lapse rate.

o But on some occasions, the situations get reversed and

temperature starts increasing with height rather than

decreasing. This is called temperature inversion. This
is due to trapping of a layer of cooler air by warmer
upper layer.

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Temperature inversion is caused due to:

➢Horizontal movement of air

➢Some special atmospheric conditions

Favourable Conditions for Temperature

Inversion:

✓ Long winter nights: Loss of heat by terrestrial

radiation from the ground surface during night

may exceed the amount of incoming solar
radiation.

✓ Cloudless and clear sky: Loss of heat through

terrestrial radiation proceeds more rapidly without

any obstruction.

✓ Dry air near the ground surface: It limits the

absorption of the radiated heat from the Earth’s

surface.

✓ Slow movement of air: It results in no transfer or

mixing of heat in the lower layers of the atmosphere.

Temperature inversion is usually of short duration but a

quite common phenomenon.

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Electromagnetic Spectrum
incoming outgoing

Greenhouse Effect
➢ A natural process that warms the Earth’s surface.
➢ When the Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s
atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and
the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse
gases.
➢ The absorbed energy warms the atmosphere and
the surface of the Earth. This process maintains the
Earth’s temperature at around 33 0C warmer than it
would otherwise be, allowing life on Earth to exist.

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Greenhouse Effect
✓The capacity of certain gases in the
atmosphere to trap heat emitted from Earth’s
surface, thereby warming the planet is known
as greenhouse effect.
✓Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation
and prevent it from escaping to space.

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1. Shorter, high
energy
wavelengths hit
the earth surface.
2. Incoming energy
is converted to
heat.
3. Longer, infrared
wavelengths hit
greenhouse gas
molecules in the
atmosphere.
4. Greenhouse gas
molecules in the
atmosphere emit
infrared radiation
back towards
earth.

Greenhouse gases:
o Contributes to the warming of the Earth's atmosphere by
reflecting radiation from the Earth's surface.
o Can absorb and emit infrared radiation. The most
abundant greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are:
▪ Water vapor (H2O)
▪ Carbon dioxide (CO2)
▪ Methane (CH4)
▪ Nitrous oxide (N2O)
▪ Ozone
▪ Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

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Greenhouse Gases:
1. Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Source:
▪ Through burning fossil fuels (coal, natural
gas, and oil), solid waste, trees and other
biological materials.
▪ As a result of certain chemical reactions
(e.g., manufacture of cement).
▪ Deforestation
Anthropogenic increase: 30%.
Average atmospheric residence time: 500 years

Greenhouse Gases:
2. Methane (CH4)
Source:
❑ Emitted during the production and transport

of coal, natural gas, and oil.

❑ Methane emissions also result from livestock

and other agricultural practices and by the

decay of organic waste in municipal solid
waste landfills.
Anthropogenic increase: 145%.
Average atmospheric residence time: 7-10
years.

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3. Nitrous oxide (N2O)

Source:
❑ Emitted during agricultural and
industrial activities.
❑ Combustion of fossil fuels and solid

waste.
❑ During treatment of wastewater.

Anthropogenic increase: 15%

Average atmospheric residence time: 140-
190 years.

4. Hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur

hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride are synthetic,
powerful greenhouse gases that are emitted from a
variety of industrial processes.

Chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, and

halons (organohalogen compound containing fluorine or
bromine with one or two carbon) gases are typically
emitted in smaller quantities, but because they are
potent greenhouse gases, they are referred to as High
Global Warming Potential gases (High GWP gases).

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Greenhouse effect:
➢When gases (CO2, H2O vapor, etc.) in the atmosphere absorb
thermal energy and radiate it back to Earth, the phenomenon is
called as Green House effect.
➢These gases function like glass walls on top of a greenhouse
A. They allow solar energy to enter Earth’s atmosphere
B. But they prevent thermal energy from escaping
Radiation Balance: balance between the incoming energy from
the sun and the energy that is allowed to leave Earth’s atmosphere.

What happens when there is no radiation balance?

Global warming

Global warming: Increase in global temperatures (an

increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,
absorb more thermal energy, causing temperatures to
rise).

Global warming refers to a rise in the temperature of the

surface of the earth.

✓ An increase in the concentration of greenhouse

gases leads to an increase in the magnitude of the
greenhouse effect. (called enhanced greenhouse
effect). This results in global warming.

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Solutions to increasing Greenhouse effect:

✓ Reduce the use of materials which produce
greenhouse gases.
✓ Avoid the burning of fossil fuel and household
residue.
✓ Upgrade infrastructures.
✓ Afforestation (convert land into forest).
✓ Using alternative sources of energy.
✓ Using eco-friendly materials.
✓ Control pollution.

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Artificial greenhouse:
A greenhouse is a house made of glass. It
has glass walls and a glass roof. A
greenhouse stays warm inside, even
during winter. Sunlight shines in and
warms the plants and air inside. But the
heat is trapped by the glass and can't
escape. So during the daylight hours, it
gets warmer and warmer inside a
greenhouse, and stays pretty warm at
night too. Due to artificial greenhouse
people can grow plants in the off season
too.

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