Here are ten questions. Please answer as many of them as you can.
Use full sentences.
If you answer all 10 questions correctly, you will be marked as the BRAINLIEST!
Use the attached Word document to help.
1. What influences the amount of solar radiation Svalbard receives?
2. Where is the sun in Northern latitudes?
3. How does the lack of radiation affect Svalbard?
4. When does Svalbard receive a polar night?
5. What is a polar night?
6. How long does the North Pole go without sun?
7. What other reasons are there for the Arctic having low temperatures? Why?
8. How much more incoming energy can snow and ice reflect compared to sandy areas?
9. What temperatures does it receive in summer?
10. Who are top of the food chain in arctic areas?
Answers
Answer:
1. Its northern location influences the amount of solar radiation it receives and is the main reason for its low temperatures.
2. In the Northern latitudes the sun is at a lower angle in the sky.
3. This lack of radiation helps maintain the low temperatures and allows permanent snow and glaciers to form, and doubles the sea ice area from summer to winter
4. Svalbard experiences a polar night in winter when the capital Longyearbyen is in darkness for 110 days straight as the sun stays below the horizon, and midnight sun throughout the summer when the sun does not sink below the horizon for 123 days.
5. During the winter months (December), the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun as it orbits the sun and so receives less radiation.
6. The North Pole has no sun for six months but places like Svalbard that are not quite so far North have a few months darkness with very short days either side
7. The Arctic also has low temperatures due to their high albedo. Albedo means the amount of solar radiation that the Earth’s surface reflects instead of absorbing.
8. Different surfaces have different reflectivity - snow and ice can reflect 85% of incoming energy, forests can reflect 20-30% and sandy areas reflect 10%.
9. However, Svalbard is not as cold as one might expect: average temperatures in the capital Longyearbyen are -5 degC in summer and -8 to -16 degC in winter.
10. Polar Bears are at the top of food chain.