Question

Explain heating of the Earth's surface.

Subject - Geography​

Answer 1

Scattering occurs when a light wave strikes a particle and bounces off in some other direction. About 3 percent of the energy that strikes the ground is reflected back into the atmosphere. The rest is absorbed by rocks, soil, and water and then radiated back into the air as heat.

Answer 2

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Heating of the Earth's surface involves four processes namely:–

$\qquad \bull \:$ Convection

$\qquad \bull \:$ Conduction

$\qquad \bull \:$ Radiation

$\qquad \bull \:$ Advection

★ CONVECTION :

When air comes in contact with the heated surface of the Earth, it gets heated too. Heated air, being lighter than cold air, starts to rise. Cold air, being heavier, settles down, taking the place of the rising warm air. The warm air on reaching a certain height becomes cold and heavy once more and starts sinking. The transfer of heat through this movement of rising warm air and sinking cold air is called convection and the currents of moving air formed thus are called convection currents. Massive convection currents are formed over the Earth, which transfer heat from the Earth to the upper parts of the atmosphere.

★ CONDUCTION :

Conduction is the transfer of heat from one body to another when they are in direct contact, through collisions between the molecules of the two bodies. Conduction is one of the ways that energy is transferred from the Earth's surface to the air. Thus, heat is passed on from the warmer Earth to the cooler air. However, air is a poor conductor of heat. On a cold, windless day, if a series of thermometres are mounted at different heights above the ground, you will see that air temperature falls rapidly with height. This is due to the poor conductivity of air.

★ RADIATION :

A third method by which heat is transferred to the atmosphere from the Earth is through radiation. Radiation is energy that is transmitted from one body to another in the form of rays or waves. The Earth absorbs heat from the Sun; it then gives off this heat in the form of infrared rays, which are absorbed by the atmosphere and heat it up.

★ ADVECTION :

Advection is the transfer of heat from one region to the other. When warm winds mix with cooler winds, heat energy is passed on from the warmer winds to the cooler winds through the process of advection. Advection usually involves the large-scale horizontal transfer of energy, for example, when cold polar winds mix with and cool the warmer air of the tropics.