ENVR 200 (51) The Global Environment - Lecture 2: Energy and the Atmosphere

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture on energy and the atmosphere.

Potential Energy

Energy stored in a substance due to its position or state, such as a rock placed above sea level

Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE)

The capacity of the atmosphere to support upward air movement involved in the formation of thunderstorms

Conduction

Heat transfer through direct contact between substances (ground and air)

Convection

Transfer of heat through the mass movement of liquid or gas; affects temperature and density

Radiation

Energy transmitted in the form of waves; can travel through empty space and absorbed by objects

Solar radiation

earth emits infrared energy at all times and only absorbs energy from the sun half of the day

Atmosphere

atmosphere is made up of a lot of molecules that interact / interfere with incoming solar radiation

Atmosphere interactions

scattering and reflection

Albedo

The reflectance of a surface

Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)

Gases in the atmosphere that absorb longwave radiation and re-emit it, contributing to the greenhouse effect

Stefan-Boltzmann Law

As the temperature of an object increases, more total radiation is emitted each second

Radiative Equilibrium Temperature

The temperature at which the outgoing terrestrial radiation balances the incoming solar radiation

Scattering

The deflection and dispersion of solar light entering the atmosphere due to air, dust, and cloud particles

Reflection

The process by which solar light collides with surfaces, directing energy back from where it came

Absorption

Kinetic energy as electromagnetic radiation is absorbed by colder substances in the atmosphere and ground

Emission

longwave radiation emitted by earth and terrestrial objects in the infrared spectrum

Wien’s Law

As temperature increases, the wavelength at which most energy is released becomes shorter

Selective Absorbers

Objects that are better at absorbing some wavelengths of radiation than others, can be transparent / not interact with one wavelength while it does absorb / interact with another

Re-emission

when energy absorbed by selective absorbers is re-emitted into space or back towards the planets surface

why can the planet sustain a higher temperature than should be possible based on the energy input from the sun?

the planet sustains a higher temperature than what should be possible based on the energy input front the sun because of the recycling of energy through re-emission by GHGs

Latent Heat Transfer

the energy taken in and released by water as it transitions through different states of matter