Tag: temperature and insolation

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which prevents the escaping of heat from the earth.

The atmosphere warms up by the following processes:

The term advection is used for horizontal transport of heat. Advection is responsible for slow heat transfer from the equatorial regions to the polar region. This process of heat transfer is relatively more important than any other method. The scorching winds blowing during the summer in the northern plains of India, which are known as Loo, are a typical example of advection.

Conduction is a slow process of heat transfer as regards warming of the atmosphere. Since air is a very poor conductor of heat, the conduction process affects only the lowermost layers of air closest to the earth's surface. As a means of heat transfer for the atmosphere as a whole, conduction is the least important and can be neglected when considering a majority of meteorological phenomena.

Since the atmosphere is a gaseous medium, convection is the most significant mechanism of heat transfer. Heat gained by the layers of air at or near the earth's surface from radiation or conduction is usually transferred to the upper atmospheric layers by the process of convection. Thus convection is the transfer of heat in the atmosphere by the air current.

Earth receives solar radiation in the form of short-wave solar radiation and the radiation is sent back to space in the form of longwave terrestrial radiation. In the absence of such a balance the earth would be getting progressively colder or progressively warmer. This balance between the amount of insolation received from the sun and outing outgoing terrestrial radiation is known as earth's heat budget or heat balance.

The average temperature of a month is the average of the maximum and minimum temperatures of that month. Atmospheric temperature is a measure of temperature at different levels of the Earth's atmosphere. It is governed by many factors, including incoming solar radiation, humidity, and altitude.

On the basis of the distribution of temperature  earth is divided  into the following  heat zones, 

The torrid zone is the area of the earth between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. It is also known as the tropical zone. The temperature in this zone is  warm, humid and moist throughout the year. The sun is directly overhead at least once in a year in the tropic zone. So this torrid zone receive maximum insolation.

Torrid heat zone lies between Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. It is the hottest heat zone on the earth. It extends on both sides of the equator.  That is between 23 degrees half minute North and 23 degrees half minute South latitudes.