Land-Water Heating differences Flashcards
What is Land water heating differences?
Differences in the degree and way that land and water heat, as a result of contrasts in transmission, evaporation, mixing, and specific heat capacities. Land surfaces heat and cool faster than water and have continentality, whereas water provides a marine influence
Explain evaporation
The process of evaporation dissipates significant amounts of the energy arriving at the ocean’s surface, much more than over land surfaces, where less water is available. An estimated 84% of all evaporation on Earth is from the oceans. When water evaporates, it changes from liquid to vapour, absorbing heat energy in the process and storing it as latent heat
How dose transparency affect water and earth?
Soil and water differ in their transmission of light: Solid ground is opaque; water is transparent. Light striking a soil surface does not pass through but is absorbed, heating the ground surface. That energy is accumulated during times of sunlight exposure and is rapidly lost at night or when shaded
Maximum and minimum daily temperatures for soil surfaces generally occur at the ground surface level. Below the surface, even at shallow depths, temperatures remain about the same throughout the day. You encounter this at a beach, where surface sand may be painfully hot to your feet, but as you dig in your toes and feel the sand a few centimetres below the surface, it is cooler, offering relief.
The transparency of water results in the distribution of available heat energy over a much greater depth and volume, forming a larger reservoir of energy storage than that which occurs on land.
Definition of transparency
The quality of a medium (air, water) that allows light to easily pass through it.
