Lec 03 Earth Rotation Seasons

L/O/G/O
The Earth System

Atmospheric Chemistry SS-09
Dr. Mujtaba Hassan
Assistant Professor
Department of Space Science IST,

Islamabad
Energy Budget (Cycle)
www.themegallery.com
The Effects of Earth’s Surface
• Albedo is the percentage of energy that is reflected

back into space without being changed
• Earth’s average albedo: 30%
• Forest has low albedo: 5-10%
• Desert has high albedo: 50%
• Fresh snow: 80-90%
Energy Budget (Cycle)
• About 40% is reflected back into space

without being changed
• The remaining energy is used within the
Earth system
• As it moves through the system, it is
changed. With every change, a little is lost to
the system.
What would happen if
the Earth’s energy
budget was not
balanced?
Scenario #1
• Too much energy

enters the Earth
system and not
enough leaves…
Scenario #2
• Too much energy

leaves the Earth
system and not
enough enters…
The Earth System
How do we impact the

Earth?
The Earth System
• Humans can alter the albedo of an

area, which affects the Earth’s
energy budget
• We can burn fossil fuels which puts
CO2 in the air, or plant trees,
which takes CO2 out of the air
“Earth Science informs all other sciences”
The Earth Sciences
Astronomy Oceanography
Biology
Physics Geology
Meteorology Hydrology
Chemistry
Earth’s Orbit and the Seasons
Rotation
• Earth rotates on its axis once every 23 hours
and 56 minutes.
• What is another term we might use for
rotating?
spinning
• Rotation on its axis causes what?
Day and night
Earth’s Shape
• We are moving at 467 m/s counterclockwise when viewed from
above the north pole
• Earth is not a perfect sphere.
• Rotation of the planet has slightly flattened it out, so it has a larger

diameter at the equator than at the poles.
• At the Earth’s equator, the circumference is 25,000 miles.
• To cover 25,000 miles in 24 hours equals a speed of a little more than

1,000 miles per hour.
• To travel 63 feet (near poles) in 24 hours equals a speed of roughly

2.5 feet per hour.
Earth’s Revolution
• Our revolution around the sun is also called

our orbit.
• The earth’s orbit is shaped like an ellipse.
• We revolve around the sun once every 365.24
days.
• The sun is not directly in the center of Earth’s
elliptical orbit.
Earth’s Seasons
The perihelion (the point in the orbit of a planet

where it is nearest to sun) and aphelion (the point in
the orbit of a planet that is at the greatest distance
from the sun) are not responsible for the seasons but
rather the tilt of Earth’s axis.
http://astro.unl.edu/naap/motion1/animations/seasons_ecliptic.swf
The Earth’s rotational axis is tilted by 23.5 with respect to a line drawn
perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic.
Earth’s rotation axis
23.5°
The seasons result from this
tilt of the Earth’s axis of
rotation.
plane of the ecliptic
This is true not only of the Earth, but all other

planets with tilted rotation axes, as we shall see.
Seasons on the Earth
Changing Angle of Sunlight
Receives only half
the heat and light
1 KW/m2 1 KW/m2
1 m2 2 m2
In winter a bundle of light is spread over a bigger area than in summer
owing to the inclination away from the Sun
• The hemisphere tilted toward the Sun receives sunlight at
higher angles than the hemisphere tilted away from the Sun.
• Higher insolation angle means greater intensity of radiant
energy (the sun shines more directly on a smaller area).
Why do we have seasons?
• Also the days are much longer than the nights during the
summer.
• During the winter, the Sun's rays hit the Earth at an
extreme angle, and the days are very short. These effects
are due to the tilt of the Earth's axis.
Seasons are caused because the Earth’s axis is tilted and as the Earth revolves around the
Sun, different parts of the Earth receive more direct sunlight (summer), while other parts of
the Earth receive sunlight which is more spread out (winter)
Seasons
• Summer solstice: the Sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer.
• Winter solstice: the Sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn
• Equinox: “equal nights”; the center of the visible Sun is directly above the equator
– Autumnal – the northern hemisphere is beginning to tilt away from the Sun
– Vernal – the northern hemisphere is beginning to tilt toward the Sun
MILANKOVITCH CYCLES
These cycles are caused by changes in the earth’s
orbit around the sun.
There are three of them: eccentricity, Obliquity
(axial tilt), and precession.
According to the Milankovitch theory, these three
cycles combine to affect the amount of solar heat
that’s incident on the Earth’s surface and
subsequently influence climatic patterns.
https://www.universetoday.com/39012/milankovitch-cycle/
MILANKOVITCH CYCLES
Eccentricity
Eccentricity is the shape of the earth’s orbit. Over a time period of
100,000 years, the orbit ranges from being a nearly perfect circle to
being an oval and back to a near-circle again. Right now, the orbit is
almost a perfect circle. This causes the earth to be a little closer to the
sun in January than it is in July, which leads to more solar energy
reaching the earth in January than in July. But this effect is small
compared to the variation in incoming sunlight caused by the tilt of the
earth, and so at this point in time the eccentricity has very little effect
on the climate over the year. If the orbit became a pronounced oval, it
would be warmer when the earth was closer to the sun regardless of tilt,
and the length of the seasons would be different.
https://climate.ncsu.edu/edu/Milankovitch
MILANKOVITCH CYCLES
Obliquity
Obliquity is the earth’s tilt relative to the earth's orbit around the sun.
The earth’s tilt causes the seasons. The tilt away from the axis changes
from 22.1° to 24.5° over a period of 41,000 years. The current tilt is
23.5° and is slowly decreasing. When the tilt becomes larger, the
seasons are more extreme, with more severe winter and summer
weather. When the tilt is smaller, the seasons are milder and less
different from each other.
MILANKOVITCH CYCLES
Precession
The precession is how much the earth wobbles on its axis.
The earth wobbles like a top that is slowing down.
The result is that the North Pole on earth changes where it points to the
sky. At present it is pointing at what we call Polaris, the Northern Star.
However, 13,000 years ago it was pointing somewhat away from
Polaris. The position of the North Pole on the sky forms a circle that is
traced out every 26,000 years.
The combination of the precession with whether the earth is nearer or
farther from the sun can affect the severity of the seasons in one
hemisphere compared to the other.
Gravitational forces of the Sun and the Moon pulling on the Earth
as it rotates causes the Earth to undergo a top-like motion called
precession. Over a period of 26,000 years, the Earth’s rotation axis
slowly moves in a circular motion.
North Star isn’t

always Polaris!
http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/earthsystem/nutshell /

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L/O/G/O

The Earth System

Dr. Mujtaba Hassan

Department of Space Science IST,

• Albedo is the percentage of energy that is reflected

• About 40% is reflected back into space

• Too much energy

• Too much energy

How do we impact the

• Humans can alter the albedo of an

The Earth Sciences

• Earth is not a perfect sphere.

• Rotation of the planet has slightly flattened it out, so it has a larger

• At the Earth’s equator, the circumference is 25,000 miles.

• To cover 25,000 miles in 24 hours equals a speed of a little more than

• To travel 63 feet (near poles) in 24 hours equals a speed of roughly

• Our revolution around the sun is also called

The perihelion (the point in the orbit of a planet

plane of the ecliptic

This is true not only of the Earth, but all other

North Star isn’t

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