Question

what factors does not affect the temperature of a place

Answer 1

Latitude

• Latitude is the distance (measured in degrees) to the north and south of the Equator.
• The further away the location is from the equator, the smaller the angle at which the sun's rays strike the earth.
• Away from the equator, the angle of incidence of the sun's ray is less than90deg, thus solar radiation is spread over a larger area. Therefore less intense heating takes place, causing temperature to become lower.
• The smaller the angle of incidence of the sun's rays, the greater the distance through the atmosphere the rays have to pass. More heat is absorbed by the atmosphere or reflected back into outer space, which results in less heat reaching the Earth's surface.

Altitude

• Altitude is the height of a point above the sea level.
• Temperature decreases by 6.5 deg C for every increase in 1,000m increase in altitude
• The air at high altitudes is thin. At higher altitudes, the air is made up of a smaller concentration of gas, dust and water vapour than the dense air at sea level. Thin air is unable to absorb heat as effectively as the dense air at sea level because it has a smaller concentration of gases to trap heat. Thus places at higher altitudes have a lower temperature

Cloud cover

• Cloud cover refers to the amount of clouds over an area.
• Tropical areas with dense cloud cover, due to high humidity in the air, experience a smaller difference in day and night temperatures. Temperate areas with less cloud cover, due to low humidity in the air, experience a larger difference in day and night temperatures.
• During the day, in tropical areas with more cloud cover, clouds absorb incoming solar insolation from the Sun. Clouds also reflect part of the incoming solar radiation back into outer space. Thus less solar radiation reaches the earth's surface and the heating effect is less intense, lowering daytime temperatures.
• However, during the day in temperate places with less cloud cover, the lack of cloud cover allows large amounts of solar radiation to reach the Earth's surface in the day, causing the temperature of the ground to rise quickly, raising daytime temperatures.
• At night, in places with more cloud cover, clouds reflect heat radiated by the ground back to the earth's surface, preventing heat from escaping into outer space. This keeps the temperature of the ground high at night.
• At night, in places with few clouds, the lack of cloud cover allows heat from the earth to escape into outer space easily, leading to a sharp drop in temperature of the ground, lowering night time temperatures.