Energy :: essays research papers

-The middle found in the tropical oceans is responsible for the movement of air and the surface ocean over most of the globe. The energy source that drives this pump is solar radiation from the sun.-The second pump is the deep ocean circulation which is also driven by the sun.-The triad pump is the heating of the earths interior by radioactive decay and radiation of heat causes plate tectonics and continents to move. This long term pump has ceased in Mars.-The winds and ocean currents redistribute the energy received from the Sun-Air moves from high pressure areas to low pressure areas horizontally due to horizontal differences in pressure.-As a parcel of air ardents up it becomes to a greater extent buoyant and the air rises. Warmer air has less density.-Pressure differences among air masses are typically related to the distribution of surface temperatures-The radiation reaching the Earth is spread over larger and larger areas as we move from the equator to the poles. You get more light per unit area at the equator than at high latitudes. -The incoming solar radiation varies with latitude and seasons, whereas the outgoing terrestrial radiation depends on the temperature at the surface and atmosphere. -Primary causes for temperature distribution on earth are because its warmer at the equator and colder at higher latitudes.-The solar radiation absorbed at the surface varies with cloud cover and atmospheric absorption. -Heated air rises at the equator causing air to move towards the equator. This converging air makes up the intertropical convergence zone. - come up air cools which causes it to loose its water in the form of rain. -Areas of rising air cause low pressures. -The warmer stratosphere acts as a barrier to the rising warm air causing it to spread out and diverge. As the air diverges it becomes more and more cooler and it sinks at 30 degrees N/S of the equator (Hadley Cell)-Most of the earths deserts are located at about 30 degrees N/S of the equa tor. Descending air causes an area of high pressure at this 30 degrees N/S-Hadley Cell the convergence occurring in the tropics and divergence some 30 degrees N/S of it is called the Hadley Cell.-The Hadley Cell and the ITCZ are non continuous around the globe. -The equatorward-moving cold air meets the warm air moving poleward from the subtropics producing a zone of steep temperature gradients called the polar front zone at approximately 60 degrees N/S latitude.