Question

Muence of latitude on climate
1
am air
Day
cool sea breeze
in
c
t
and warmer
see cooler
SI
Night
cool land breeze
warm air
n
h
andcooler
and cooler
C
Fig 4.2: How does this moderate the
temperature of such a place?
​

Answer 1

Answer:

Water has a very high heat capacity. It takes a lot of heat energy to cause a relatively small change in temperature. Water also has a very heat of fusion and heat of vaporization, so when the addition or subtraction of heat causes a phase change in water, that energy shows up as an increase or decrease in the amount of ice or vapor in the system, rather than an increase or decrease in the temperature of the system.

So...

Land next to a large body of water has a more moderate temperature because of this.

If you add heat to an environment near a large body of water, some of the added heat will go to evaporating water. This will keep the temperature lower than it otherwise would be. Or if you pull heat out, water vapor will condense and dump heat into the air, keeping the temperature higher than it otherwise would be.

Similarly, a large body of ice will absorb heat, melting some water and keeping the surrounding area cooler than would otherwise be the case. When you drop the temperature of a body of water near the freezing point, some of the water will freeze, dumping heat into the surrounding environment, so the temperature will stay higher than it otherwise would.