SHIELA V.

IMBAO PAGE 1 1997-20937

1. Differentiate the radiation from the sun and from the earths surface.5 pts The sun, with its high surface temperature, emits a great deal of high energy, referred to as solar, or shortwave, radiation. Most of solar radiation is the visible light we see with our eyes, but it also includes wavelengths that we cannot see, like the ultraviolet light that causes sunburn. The Earth, however, being much cooler than the sun, emits lower energy, also referred to as terrestrial, which means land-based or long wave radiation. Although we cannot see long wave radiation with our eyes, we detect is as heat. In summary, the types of radiation emitted by the sun and the earth are determined by their temperatures. The sun, which is very hot, emits high energy, shortwave radiation, while the earth, which is much cooler, emits lower energy, long wave radiation.

2. What is albedo? Albedo is the fraction of Suns radiation reflected from a surface. It is from the Latin word albus which means white. It may be expressed as a percentage, and is measured on a scale from zero for no reflecting power of a perfectly black surface, to 1 for perfect reflection of a white surface. On average, the Earth and the atmosphere reflects 4% and 26 % respectively of the Suns incoming radiation back to the space resulting to a 30% combined albedo of the Earthatmosphere system. The albedo of a planet clearly affects the ability of that planet to absorb sunlight, thus converting it to heat that can warm the planet and drive its climate.